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English language




The English language is a language which originated in England and has since
spread throughout the British Isles and into various regions where Britain
held overseas colonies. English is probably the third or fourth most popular
world language in numbers of native speakers (402,000,000 in 2002), but the
most popular second and learning language in the world. The cultural,
economic, military, political and scientific importance of the United States
of America and the United Kingdom for the last two centuries has given
English pre-eminent status as a language of international communication.
Knowledge of English is virtually a prerequisite for working in academia,
for instance.

English belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of
languages. The closest undoubted living relative of English is Frisian, a
language spoken by approximately half a million people in the Dutch province
of Friesland, in nearby areas of Germany, and on a few islands in the North
Sea. Some people regard Scots as a closely related separate language from
English, while others consider it an English dialect. Scots has a tradition
as a separate language, as well as somewhat different grammar and
vocabulary. (Some would even say that Ebonics is a separate language, but
this is extremely debatable.) After Frisian, the next closest relative is
the modern Low Saxon language of the eastern Netherlands and northern
Germany. Other less closely related living languages include Dutch,
Afrikaans, and German. Many French words are also intelligible to an English
speaker, as English absorbed a tremendous amount of vocabulary from French
after the Norman conquest.

History

English is descended from the language spoken by the Germanic tribes that
invaded Britain during late antiquity and the Dark Ages (it is arguable that
the Danish contribution occurred as late as the early Middle Ages), although
it received outside influences until much later.

The principal invading Germanic tribes were Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Their
Anglo-Saxon dialects developed into Old English. Although the most commonly
used words today derive from those early Anglo-Saxon roots, its vocabulary
was greatly influenced over time firstly by Danish invaders who spoke Old
Norse, and then, to an even greater extent, by Norman invaders who spoke French.

For over two hundred years, the Norman French rulers governed and ran the
church, educational and court systems in French, and French was the language
of the aristocracy. As a result, English changed from its roots to such an
extent that Modern English speakers cannot understand Old English.
Interestingly Old English would be understood fairly well by today's
Icelandic-speaking folk. It lost most of its word inflections and gained a
great deal of French vocabulary.

One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of
English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are
Germanic (mostly Anglo-Saxon), and those which are "Latinate"
(Latin-derived, mostly from Norman French but some borrowed directly from
Latin). During the Norman reign England was bilingual (see below), with
French the language of government and aristocracy, English the language of
the common people. Almost without exception, Germanic words (which include
all the basics such as pronouns and conjunctions) are shorter, more
informal, and more indicative of common or uneducated speech, while for
Latinate words the reverse is true. An English-speaker is often able to
choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: "come" or "arrive", "sight"
or "vision", "freedom" or "liberty". In general, Germanic words are found
most commonly in everyday speech, while their more formal (or more educated,
or more pretentious, depending on the context) Latinate equivalents are
found in the context of more serious speech and writing, such as a courtroom
or an encyclopedia article. The overbearing use of Latinate words is often a
sign of either pretentiousness (as in the stereotypical policeman's talk of
"apprehending the suspect") or obfuscation (as in a military document which
says "neutralize" when it means "kill").

By about the time of the Renaissance, the language had evolved into what is
known as Middle English, which Modern English speakers can understand with a
little difficulty. From the late 1400s, the language changed further into
what is described as Modern English. English has continued to assimilate
foreign words, especially Latin and Greek, even to the present time. As a
result of this history of assimilation, English today is commonly believed
to have the largest vocabulary of any language in the world. As there are
many words from different languages the risk of mispronounciation is high.

In 1755 Samuel Johnson published the first significant English dictionary.

Historic English text samples

Old English

ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE C, s.a. 1016 Her on thissum geare com Cnut mid his
here and Eadric ealdorman mid him ofer Temese into Myrcum aet Cregelade, and
wendon tha to Waerincwicscire innan thaere middan wintres tide and heregodon
and baerndon and slogon eal thaet hi to comon. tha ongan se aetheling
Eadmund to gaderigenne fyrde. Tha seo fyrd gesomnod waes, tha ne onhagode
heom tharto buton thaet waere thaet se cyng thaer mid waere and hi haefdon
thaere burhware fultum of Lundene. Geswicon tha thaere fyrdinge, and ferde
him aelc man ham. Tha aefter thaere tide tha bead man eft fyrde be fullan
wite thaet aelc man the fere waere for aegewende, and man sende to tham
cynge to Lundene and baed hine thaet he come ongean tha fyrde mid tham
fultume the he gegaderian mihte.

Middle English

From The Canterbury Tales by Geoffry Chaucer, 14th century

  Here bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunterbury

       Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
       The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
       And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
       Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
       Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
       Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
       The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
       Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
       And smale foweles maken melodye,
       That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
       (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
       Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

Early modern English

From Othello by William Shakespeare, 1603

    Iago: Though in the trade of Warre I haue slaine men,
          Yet do I hold it very stuffe o'th' conscience
          To do no contriu'd Murder: I lacke Iniquitie
          Sometime to do me seruice. Nine, or ten times
          I had thought t'haue yerk'd him here vnder the Ribbes.

 Othello: 'Tis better as it is.

Modern English

From the United States Declaration of Independence, 1776, by Thomas
Jefferson

 IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

 When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to
 dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to
 assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which
 the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the
 opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
 them to the separation.

English in the world

English is the first language in Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda,
Guyana, Jamaica, New Zealand, Antigua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and
Tobago, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

English is also one of the primary languages of Belize (with Spanish),
Canada (with French), Dominica (with French Cr�ole), St. Lucia and Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines (with French Cr�ole), the Federated States of
Micronesia, Ireland (with Irish), Liberia (with African languages),
Singapore and South Africa (with Afrikaans and other African languages).

It is an official language, but not native, in Fiji, Ghana, Gambia, India,
Kiribati, Lesotho, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Malta, the Marshall Islands,
Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Samoa,
Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

English is also the language most often studied as a foreign language in
Europe (32.6%) and Japan, followed by French, German and Spanish.

Major Dialects of English

   * American English
   * Australian English
   * British English
   * Canadian English
   * Caribbean English
   * Hiberno-English
   * Jamaican English
   * Newfoundland English
   * New Zealand English
   * South African English
   * Singapore English - sometimes called Singlish
   * Malaysian English - sometimes called Manglish

These varieties may, in most cases, contain several subvarieties, such as
Cockney within British English and African American Vernacular English
(AAVE) (aka Ebonics, spoken among some African-Americans).

Due to its wide use as a second language, English is spoken with many
different accents, which may identify the speaker's native language. For
some distinctive characteristics of certain accents, see how to tell the
origin of an accent.

Phonology

English orthography is historical, not phonological orthography and diverges
considerably from the spoken language. This is English's Consonantal System
(including dialect sounds):

            Labial   Labio-dental (Inter)Dental Alveolar Alveo-palatalVelar   Glottal
 Stop       p b      �            �             t d      �            k g     �
 Fricative  �        f v          T D           s z      S Z          x¹ h
 Affricate  �        �            �             �        tS dZ        �       �
 Approximant�        �            �             l        r            �       �

 Semi-vowel w        �            �             �        j            �       �
            W²
 Nasal      m        �            �             n        �            N       �

  1. This is a velar fricative and is found only in Scots in Gaelic
     loanwords such as loch (`lax)
  2. Voiceless w (/W/) is found in Scots and upper-class British.

See also List of Archaic English Words and Their Modern Equivalents, List of
words commonly mispronounced, rhotic, singular they, Received Pronunciation,
General American pronunciation, Standard Midwestern pronunciation,
non-sexist language

Grammar

English grammar is based on that of its Germanic roots, though some scholars
during the 1700s and 1800s attempted to impose Latin grammar upon it, with
little success. All in all English is a much less inflected language than
the bulk of Indo-European languages, placing more of the information in the
word order. English is a slightly inflected language, retaining features
like:

   * Possessive (which has developed into a clitic)
       1. He is Alfredo's best friend. -'s

   * 3rd person singular present
       1. Alfredo works. -s

   * past tense
       1. Alfredo worked. -ed

   * present participle/ progressive
       1. Alfredo is working. -ing

   * past participle
       1. The car was stolen. -en
       2. Alfredo has talked to the police. -ed

   * plural
       1. All your sigs are mine. -s

   * comparative
       1. Alfredo is smarter than Ricky. -er

   * superlative
       1. Alfredo has the bluest eyes. -est

Vocabulary

English is noted for the vast size of its active vocabulary and its
fluidity. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and
imports new words which often come into common usage. In addition, slang
provides new meanings for old words. In fact this fluidity is so pronounced
that a distinction often needs to be made between formal and correct forms
of English and contemporary usage. See also sociolinguistics.

Written accents

English includes some words which can be written with accent marks. These
words have been imported from other languages. But it is increasingly rare
for writers of English to actually use the accent marks for common words,
even in very formal writing, to the point where actually writing the accent
may be interpreted as a sign of pretension.

Some examples: �ngstr�m, appliqu�, attach�, blas�, bric-�-brac, r�sum�.
Please add to this list.

It is also possible to use a diaeresis to indicate a sylable break, but
again this is often left out. Examples: co�perate, da�s, na�ve

Written accents are also used occasionally in poetry and scripts for
dramatic performances to indicate that a certain normally unstressed
syllable in a word should be stressed for dramatic effect, or to keep with
the meter of the poetry. This use is frequently seen in archaic and
pseudoarchaic writings with the -ed suffix, to indicate that the "e" should
be fully pronounced: i.e. "curs�d".

Loanwords

Note: This section is a representative sample only and is very incomplete.

In a discussion on the newsgroup rec.arts.sf-lovers in May 1990, James D.
Nicoll made the telling and much-quoted observation: "The problem with
defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as
pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English
has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and
rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."

From African languages
 banana       (via Portuguese or Spanish )
 dengue       (from Swahili via Spanish )

From Afrikaans
 trek

From Native American languages
 alpaca       (from Aymara via Spanish)
 cannibal     (from Caribbean, via Spanish)
 canoe        (from Caribbean, via Spanish)
 chocolate    (from Nahuatl, via Spanish)
 cocaine      (from Quechua, via Spanish)
 coyote       (from Nahuatl, via Spanish)
 Eskimo       (from Cree)
 hurricane    (from Caribbean, via Spanish)
 igloo        (from Innuktitut)
 jaguar       (from Tupi, via Portuguese)
 kayak        (from Innuktitut)
 moccasin     (from Algonquian languages)
 moose        (from Algonquian languages)
 ocelot       (from Nahuatl, via Spanish)
 potato       (via Spanish)
 racoon       (from Algonquian languages)
 squaw
 (archaic,    (from Cree iskwe)
 pejorative)
 tomato       (from Nahuatl, via Spanish)
 wigwam       (from Algonquian languages)

From Arabic
 alcove       (via Spanish alcoba)
 alcohol      (via Spanish alcohol)
 algebra      (via Spanish �lgebra)

From Dutch
 boorish

From French Thousands of English words came from French after the Norman
conquest.

From German

 pretzel      a traditionally salted and often hard
              bread snack.
 stein        a German style beer glass.
 wanderlust   a nomadic urge.
 sauerkraut   a mixture of cabbage in brine.
 frankfurter  a hot dog.

 hamburger    a sandwich featuring a ground beef
              patty or often simply ground beef.

 kindergarten an educational institution for
              pre-school children.
 rucksack     a synonym for backpack

From Greek

Thousands of English words came from Greek. Examples include philosophy and
philology. 'tele' as in telecommunications also came from Greek.

From Italian

Most musical terms used in English (and other languages) are Italian, e.g.
forte, piano, etc.

 cameo
 broccoli
 incognito
 motto
 opera
 spaghetti
 studio
 terra-cotta
 umbrella
 vendetta
 volcano

From Japanese

 judo         A wrestling sport derived from
              juijitsu; literally "gentle way"

 kamikaze     suicide attack. Japanese for "divine
              wind"
 karaoke

 karate       A martial arts style; literally "empty
              hand"
 origami      paper crafts
 sake         a Japanese liquor
 sushi

 tycoon       wealthy and powerful businessperson.
              Japanese for big monarch
 tsunami      tidal wave

From Pennsylvania German (Pennsylvania Dutch)
 dunk         to dip

From Spanish
 alligator    (from el lagarto, "the lizard")
 canyon       (from ca�on)
 guerrilla
 marijuana
 mosquito
 mulatto      (from mulato)
 plaza
 siesta

From Portuguese
 tank         (from tanque)
 verandah     (from varanda)

Constructed variants of English

Basic English is simplified for easy international use. It is used by some
aircraft manufacturers and other international businesses to write manuals
and communicate. Some English schools in the Far East teach it as an initial
practical subset of English.

Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of
America. It uses a vocabulary of 1500 words.

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