English is a West Germanic language that originated in early medieval England and is now the most widely spoken second language in the world and the primary language of international science, business and aviation. Its vocabulary was reshaped by centuries of contact, first with Old Norse through Viking settlement, then massively with Norman French after the Conquest of 1066, leaving a language whose grammar remains recognizably Germanic while a large share of its everyday vocabulary is of French or Latin origin. It is written in the Latin alphabet with famously irregular spelling, a legacy of its layered history that later standardization never fully reconciled with pronunciation.
Facts
ISO 639-3 Code Speaker CountEthnologue's total figure combines roughly 380 million first-language speakers with over a billion second-language speakers; the two populations are counted very differently across sources, so total speaker figures for English vary widely by methodology. Attested From (Year)Conventional start date of Old English, the earliest form of the language. RegionOriginated in early medieval England; today spoken natively across the United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and beyond 2 Region reflects origin plus current global spread; see source for detail on worldwide distribution. Connections
Ancestor Of
Source Wikipedia: African-American Vernacular English
Source Wikipedia: Australian English
Source Wikipedia: Cockney
Source Wikipedia: Geordie
Source Wikipedia: Jamaican Patois
Source Wikipedia: Newfoundland English
Source Wikipedia: Scouse
Source Wikipedia: Singlish
Source Wikipedia: Southern American English
Source Wikipedia: Yorkshire Dialect
Associated With
This source names English directly: "order, a development that parallels English losing case rather than most of Bulgarians closer relatives."
Source The Cambridge Encyclopedia of LanguageDavid Crystal (editor)
Developed Case Grammar and later frame semantics largely through analysis of English argument structure.
This source names English directly: "Encyclopaedia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia, in continuous publication since 1768, whose linguistics and history entries are written and reviewed by subject specialists and..."
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Developed conceptual metaphor theory largely through analysis of everyday English expressions, most influentially in Metaphors We Live By (1980).
Developed lexical-functional grammar, a syntactic theory built substantially on the analysis of English argument structure and control constructions.
Developed prosodic analysis and a contextual theory of meaning largely through the study of English phonology.
This source names Latin directly: "everyday vocabulary is of French or Latin origin."
Source The Cambridge Encyclopedia of LanguageDavid Crystal (editor)
Source LanguageLeonard Bloomfield
Developed systemic functional grammar as a comprehensive account of English clause structure and its social functions.
Source Syntactic StructuresNoam Chomsky
Developed conceptual semantics and the parallel architecture model of grammar largely through analysis of English syntax and lexical semantics.
Source The Social Stratification of English in New York CityWilliam Labov
In Family
Source Wikipedia: Germanic Languages
Written In
Source Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Languages
Sources
1. Ethnologue: Languages of the World
2. Wikipedia: English Language
Wikimedia Foundationlead section
named after the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Britain
Quote
Old English ... was spoken from c. 450 to c. 1150
View the Source The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
David Crystal (editor), Cambridge University Press, 2010
Glottolog
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyIn Family: Indo-EuropeanView the Source Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Languages
Syntactic Structures
Noam Chomsky, 1957Associated With: Noam Chomsky
Language
Leonard Bloomfield, 1933Associated With: Leonard Bloomfield
The Social Stratification of English in New York City
William Labov, 1966Associated With: William Labov
Wikipedia: Germanic Languages
Wikimedia FoundationIn Family: Germanic, Major branches sectionView the Source Wikipedia: Cockney
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Cockney, Nomenclature section, citing Fynes Moryson, 1617Quote, Ancestor Of: Cockney, Nomenclature section, citing Fynes Moryson, 1617
Londoners, and all within the sound of Bow Bells, are in reproach called Cockneys.
Wikipedia: Scouse
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Scouse, Lead sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Scouse, Lead section
Scouse is highly distinctive and bears little resemblance to other English accents, primarily due to the port of Liverpool, which saw the arrival of Irish and Welsh immigrants and was a popular stop for Scandinavian sailors.
Wikipedia: Geordie
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Geordie, Lead sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Geordie, Lead section
The Geordie dialect is often considered unintelligible to many other native English speakers.
Wikipedia: African-American Vernacular English
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: African American Vernacular English, Phonology sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: African American Vernacular English, Phonology section
John McWhorter argues that what truly unites all AAVE accents is a uniquely wide-ranging intonation pattern or melody.
Wikipedia: Southern American English
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Southern American English, Phonology sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Southern American English, Phonology section
One defining feature is the diphthong in prize, lime, fly and similar words losing its gliding quality and becoming a flat vowel in many or all environments.
Wikipedia: Australian English
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Australian English, History sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Australian English, History section
By the 1820s, the native-born colonists' speech was recognisably distinct from speakers in Britain and Ireland.
Wikipedia: Jamaican Patois
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Jamaican Patois, History sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Jamaican Patois, History section
Patois developed in the 17th century when enslaved people from West and Central Africa were exposed to, learned, and nativised the vernacular and dialectal languages spoken by the slaveholders and overseers.
Wikipedia: Singlish
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Singlish, Grammar sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Singlish, Grammar section
The grammar of Singlish includes topic-prominence, omission of the word be, reduplication of words, and discourse particles such as ah, lah, and what.
Wikipedia: Newfoundland English
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Newfoundland English, Phonology, Th-stopping sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Newfoundland English, Phonology, Th-stopping section
For example, 'that thing over there' becomes 'dat ting over dere.'
Wikipedia: Yorkshire Dialect
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Yorkshire Dialect, Introduction sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Yorkshire Dialect, Introduction section
Yorkshire experienced drastic dialect levelling in the 20th century, eroding many traditional features.
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