England /ˈɪŋɡlənd/ (help·info) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom.[8][9][10] Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population,[11] while its mainland territory occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain. England is bordered by Scotland to the north, Wales to the west and the North Sea, Irish Sea, Celtic Sea, Bristol Channel and English Channel. The capital is London, the largest urban area in Great Britain, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by many measures.[12]
England became a unified state in the year 927 and takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled there during the 5th and 6th centuries. It has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world[13] being the place of origin of the English language, the Church of England, and English law, which forms the basis of the common law legal systems of countries around the world. In addition, England was the birth place of the Industrial Revolution, thus being the first country in the world to industrialise.[14] It is home to the Royal Society, which laid the foundations of modern experimental science.[15] England has the world's oldest parliamentary system,[16] and consequently, other constitutional, governmental and legal innovations that stemmed from England have been widely adopted by other nations.
The Kingdom of England (including Wales) continued as a separate state until 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union, putting into effect the terms agreed in the Treaty of Union the previous year, resulted in political union with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the united Kingdom of Great Britain.[17] In 1800, Great Britain was united with Ireland through another Act of Union 1800 to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1921, the Irish Free State was created, and the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act in 1927 officially established the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which exists today.Contents [hide]
1 Etymology and usage
2 History
3 Government and politics
4 Law and criminal justice
5 Geography
6 Economics
7 Demography
8 Culture
9 Language
10 Religion
11 Education
12 Healthcare
13 Transport
14 People
15 Nomenclature
16 National symbols, insignia and anthems
17 References
18 External links
Etymology and usage
See also: British Isles (terminology)
England is named after the Angles, the largest of the Germanic tribes who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries, and who are believed to have originated in the peninsula of Angeln, in what is now Denmark and northern Germany.[18] (The further etymology of this tribe's name remains uncertain, although a popular theory holds that it need be sought no further than the word angle itself, and refers to a fish-hook-shaped region of Holstein.)[19]
The Angles' name has had various spellings. The earliest known reference to these people is under the Latinised version Anglii used by Tacitus in chapter 40 of his Germania,[20] written around 98 AD. He gives no precise indication of their geographical position within Germania, but states that, with six other tribes, they worshipped a goddess named Nerthus, whose sanctuary was situated on "an island in the Ocean".
The early 8th century historian Bede, in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People), refers to the English people as Angelfolc (in English) or Angli (in Latin).[21]
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known usage of "England" referring to the southern part of the island of Great Britain was in 897, with the modern spelling first used in 1538.[22]
England is officially defined as "subject to any alteration of boundaries under Part IV of the Local Government Act 1972, the area consisting of the counties established by section 1 of that Act, Greater London and the Isles of Scilly."[23]
History
Main article: History of England
Stonehenge, a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument in Wiltshire, thought to have been erected c.2000–2500 BC.
Bones and flint tools found in Norfolk and Suffolk show that Homo erectus lived in what is now England about 700,000 years ago.[24] At this time, Great Britain was joined to mainland Europe by a large land bridge. The current position of the English Channel was a large river flowing westwards and fed by tributaries that would later become the Thames and the Seine. This area was greatly depopulated during the period of the last major ice age, as were other regions of the British Isles. In the subsequent recolonisation, after the thawing of the ice, genetic research shows that present-day England was the last area of the British Isles to be repopulated,[25] about 13,000 years ago. The migrants arriving during this period contrast with the other of the inhabitants of the British Isles, coming across lands from the south east of Europe, whereas earlier arriving inhabitants came north along a coastal route from Iberia. These migrants would later adopt the Celtic culture that came to dominate much of western Europe.
By AD 43, the time of the main Roman invasion, Britain had already been the target of frequent invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. It was first invaded by the Roman dictator Julius Caesar in 55 BC, but it was conquered more fully by the Emperor Claudius in 43 AD. Like other regions on the edge of the empire, Britain had long enjoyed trading links with the Romans, and their economic and cultural influence was a significant part of the British late pre-Roman Iron Age, especially in the south. With the fall of the Roman Empire 400 years later, the Romans left the Province of Britannia, much of which later came to be known as England.
Medieval England
Main article: England in the Middle Ages
An Anglo-Saxon helmet found at Sutton Hoo, probably belonging to Raedwald of East Anglia circa 625.
The History of Anglo-Saxon England covers the history of early mediæval England from the end of Roman Britain and the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Conquest by the Normans in 1066.[26] Fragmentary knowledge of Anglo-Saxon England in the 5th and 6th centuries comes from the British writer Gildas (6th century) the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (a history of the English people begun in the 9th century), saints' lives, poetry, archaeological findings, and place-name studies. The dominant themes of the seventh to tenth centuries were the spread of Christianity and the political unification of England. Christianity is thought to have come from three directions — from Rome to the south, and Scotland and Ireland to the north and west, respectively. From about 500 AD, it is believed England was divided into seven petty kingdoms, known as the Heptarchy: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex.[27] The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms tended to coalesce by means of warfare. As early as the time of Ethelbert of Kent, one king could be recognised as Bretwalda ("Lord of Britain"). Generally speaking, the title fell in the 7th century to the kings of Northumbria; in the 8th to those of Mercia; and in the 9th to Egbert of Wessex, who in 825 defeated the Mercians at the Battle of Ellendun. In the next century, his family came to rule England.
The signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. It was one of the first steps towards the idea of modern democracy.
Originally, England was a geographical term to describe the part of Britain occupied by the Anglo-Saxons, rather than a name of an individual nation-state. It became politically united through the expansion of the kingdom of Wessex, whose king Athelstan brought the whole of England under one ruler for the first time in 927, although unification did not become permanent until 954, when Edred defeated Eric Bloodaxe and became King of England.
In 1016, England was conquered by the Danish king Canute the Great and became the centre of government for his short-lived empire. With the accession of Edward the Confessor, heir of the native English dynasty, in 1042, England once again became a separate kingdom. Its ties and nature, however, were forever changed following the Norman Conquest in 1066.
The next few hundred years saw England as a major part of expanding and dwindling empires based in France with the "Kings of England" using England as a source of troops to enlarge their personal holdings in France for years (Hundred Years' War) starting with Edward III; in fact, the English crown did not relinquish its last foothold on mainland France until Calais was lost in 1558, during the reign of Mary Tudor (the Channel Islands are still crown dependencies, though not part of the UK).
Fifteenth-century miniature depicting the English victory over France at the Battle of Agincourt.
In the 13th century Wales (the remaining Romano-Celts) was brought under the control of English monarchs through conquest. This was formalised in the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 and Wales was legally annexed to the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. Wales shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity originally called England and later England and Wales.
An epidemic of catastrophic proportions, the Black Death first reached England in the summer of 1348. The Black Death is estimated to have killed between a third and two-thirds of Europe's population. England alone lost as much as 70% of its population, which passed from seven million to two million in 1400. The plague repeatedly returned to haunt England throughout the 14th to 17th centuries.[28] The Great Plague of London in 1665–1666 was the last plague outbreak.[29]
Early Modern period
Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I made to commemorate the English victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588.
During the English Reformation in the 16th century, the external authority of the Roman Catholic Church in England was abolished and replaced with Acts of Royal Supremacy and the establishment of the Church of England ("Anglican Church") under the Supreme Governance of the English monarch. This occurred during the reign of Henry VIII. The English Reformation differed from its European counterparts in that its roots were more political than theological.[30]
The English Reformation paved the way for the spread of Anglicanism in the church and other institutions.
The period known as the English Civil War (1642–1651) saw political machinations and armed conflicts between supporters of the Long Parliament (Roundheads) and of King Charles I (Royalists) in 1642 to 1645 and 1648 to 1649, followed by conflict between supporters of the Rump Parliament and of King Charles II in 1649 to 1651. The War ended with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651. It had led to the trial and execution of Charles I, the exile of his son Charles II, the replacement of the English monarchy with the Commonwealth of England (1649–1653) and personal rule by Oliver Cromwell during The Protectorate (1653–1659).
The Restoration under Charles II restored peace after the Civil War.
After Cromwell's death in 1659, a brief return, lead by Cromwell's weak son, to Commonwealth rule was attempted before Parliament invited Charles II to return to England in 1660 and restore the monarchy. During the interregnum, the Church of England's monopoly on Christian worship in England came to an end and the Protestant Ascendancy consolidated in Ireland. Constitutionally, the wars established a precedent that British monarchs could not govern without parliamentary consent, although this would not be cemented until the Glorious Revolution later in the century.
Although embattled for centuries, the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland had been drawing increasingly together since the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century[31] and in 1603, with the Scottish king James VI accession to the English crown, the two countries became linked by a personal union, being ruled by the same Stuart dynasty.[31][32] Following a number of attempts to unite the Kingdoms, a Treaty of Union was agreed on 22 July 1706 by representatives of the English and Scottish parliaments,[33] and put into effect by the Acts of Union which resulted in political union between the states with the creation of the united Kingdom of Great Britain on 1 May 1707.[31] (Ireland joining in 1801 with all of Ireland except Northern Ireland leaving in 1922 has resulted in the current name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland).
Within the Union
After the Union, England and Wales retained their separate legal identity since the continuance of the separate Scottish legal system was enshrined in the Articles of the Treaty of Union. Wales was already part of the Kingdom of England but the Wales and Berwick Act 1746 made it explicit that laws passed for England were automatically applicable to Wales. The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 also referred to the formerly Scottish burgh of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The border town changed hands several times and was finally conquered by England in 1482 but was not officially incorporated into England. Contention about whether Berwick was in England or Scotland was ended by the union of the two in 1707. Berwick remains within the English legal system and so is regarded today as part of England (though there has been suggestion in Scotland that Berwick should be invited to 'return to the fold').[34] The county of Monmouthshire has long been an ambiguous area with its legal identity passing between England and Wales at various periods. In the Local Government Act 1972, it was made part of Wales. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are crown dependencies and are not part of England.
Government and politics
Main article: Government of England
A mediæval manuscript, showing the Parliament of England in front of the king c. 1300
There has not been a Government of England since 1707, when the Acts of Union 1707, putting into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed the previous year, joined the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the united Kingdom of Great Britain.[35] Prior to this, England was ruled by a monarch and the Parliament of England. However, following the establishment of devolved government for Scotland and Wales in 1999, England was left as the only country within the United Kingdom still governed in matters by the UK government and the UK parliament in London.[36]
Since Westminster is the UK parliament but also legislates on matters that affect England alone, devolution of national matters to parliament/assemblies in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland has refocused attention on the anomaly called the West Lothian question. The "question" is why Scottish and Welsh MPs should continue to be able to vote on legislation relating only to England while English MPs have no equivalent right to legislate on devolved matters.[37] This constitutional arrangement resulted in the Labour government only winning a 2004 vote to impose higher tuition fees on students in England due to the support of Scottish Labours MPs.[38] This "question" is also exacerbated by the large number of Scottish MPs in the government, a group sometimes disparagingly called the Scottish mafia, and by having a Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who represents a Scottish constituency that is unaffected by the policy decisions he takes.
There are calls for a devolved English parliament, such as by former minister Frank Field MP,[39] and there is opinion poll evidence of public support for the idea.[40] Some minor English parties go further, calling for the dissolution of the Union.[41][42] However, the approach favoured by the current Labour government was (on the basis that England is too large to be governed as a single sub-state entity) to propose the devolution of power to the Regions of England. Lord Falconer claimed a devolved English parliament would dwarf the rest of the United Kingdom.[43] The Conservative Party, on the other hand, are considering proposals to ban Scottish MPs from voting on English only legislation in Westminster.[44]
Today, therefore, England's affairs are managed by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament, and England-specific quangos such as English Heritage.
Politics
Main article: Politics of England
The Palace of Westminster, the seat of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
A total of 529 of the current 646 MPs in the House of Commons represent English constituencies, which will rise to 533 out of 650 at the next general election.
At the 2005 General Election, the Conservative Party won more votes than any other single party, with 35.7% of the vote. However, Labour won a majority of England's MPs, having 284 MPs elected, on the basis of just 35.4% of the popular vote with the Conservative Party winning just 194 MPs. The Liberal Democrats were the third party winning 47 MPs with 22.5% of the vote, and the only other MPs elected were one for Respect and a Kidderminster Hospital campaigner.[45]
Subdivisions and local government
Main articles: Administrative divisions of England and Counties of England
Manchester Town Hall
The upper-tier subdivisions of England are the nine Regions of England or European Union government office regions.[46] A London referendum in 1998 on the question of having a directly elected assembly and directly elected mayor produced a large majority in favour and it was intended that other regions would also be given their own elected regional assemblies. However, a rejection by a referendum in 2004 of a proposed assembly in the North East region stopped this idea in its tracks.[47] During the campaign, a common criticism of the proposals was that England did not need "another tier of bureaucracy".[48]
Below the regional level, London consists of 32 London boroughs and the rest of England has either county councils and district councils or unitary authorities. At the lowest level, much of England is divided into parishes though parishes are prohibited from existing in Greater London.
Law and criminal justice
Main article: English law
The Royal Courts of Justice
The English common law legal system, developed over the centuries, is also the foundation of many legal systems throughout the English-speaking countries of the world.[49] It continued to apply in England and Wales after the Treaty of Union because the terms of the Treaty specifically guaranteed the continued existence of Scotland's separate legal system, which meant that England's system has also remained separate.
The essence of English common law is that it is made by judges sitting in courts, applying their common sense and knowledge of legal precedent (stare decisis) to the facts before them. The court system is headed by the Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases). The Appellate Committee of the House of Lords (usually just referred to as "The House of Lords") is presently the highest court for both criminal and civil cases in England and Wales though recent constitutional changes will see the powers of the House of Lords transfer to a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.[50] A decision of the highest appeal court in England and Wales, the House of Lords, is binding on every other court in the hierarchy, and they will follow its directions.
Crime in England and Wales increased in the period between 1981 and 1995 though, since that peak, there has been an overall fall of 42% in crime from 1995 to 2006/7.[51] Despite the fall in crime rates, the prison population of England and Wales has almost doubled over the same period, to over 80,000, giving England and Wales the highest rate of incarceration in Western Europe at 147 per 100,000,[52] Her Majesty's Prison Service which reports to the Ministry of Justice, manages most of the prisons within England and Wales.[53]
Geography
Main article: Geography of England
A view of Borrowdale from Grayrigg Forest in the Lake District.
The rolling terrain of the North York Moors
The River Avon under the Pulteney Bridge in Bath, Somerset
A view of Sheffield, one of England's largest cities
England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of mainland Britain, divided from France only by a 24-statute mile (52 km or 21 nautical mile)[54] sea gap. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, directly links England to mainland Europe. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel.[55]
Much of England consists of rolling hills, but it is generally more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. Other hilly areas in the north and Midlands are the Lake District, the North York Moors, and the Peak District. The approximate dividing line between terrain types is often indicated by the Tees-Exe line. To the south of that line, there are larger areas of flatter land, including East Anglia and the Fens, although hilly areas include the Cotswolds, the Chilterns, and the North and South Downs.
The largest natural harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Some regard it as the second largest harbour in the world, after Sydney, Australia, although this fact is disputed (see harbours for a list of other large natural harbours).
Climate
Main article: Climate of the United Kingdom
England has a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round, although the seasons are quite variable in temperature. However, temperatures rarely fall below −5 °C (23 °F) or rise above 30 °C (86 °F). The prevailing wind is from the south-west, bringing mild and wet weather to England regularly from the Atlantic Ocean. It is driest in the east and warmest in the south, which is closest to the European mainland. Snowfall can occur in winter and early spring, although it is not that common away from high ground.
The highest temperature recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on 10 August 2003 at Brogdale, near Faversham, in Kent.[56] The lowest temperature recorded in England is −26.1 °C (−15.0 °F) on 10 January 1982 at Edgmond, near Newport, in Shropshire.[57]
Major rivers
Main article: List of rivers of England
England has a number of important rivers including the Severn (the longest river and largest river basin in Great Britain), Tees, Thames, Trent, Humber, Tyne, Wear, Ribble, Ouse, Mersey, Dee, Aire, Avon and Medway.
Major conurbations
London is by far the largest urban area in England and one of the largest and busiest cities in the world. Other cities, mainly in central and northern England, are of substantial size and influence. The list of England's largest cities or urban areas is open to debate because, although the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area", this can be hard to define, particularly because administrative areas in England often do not correspond with the limits of urban development, and many towns and cities have, over the centuries, grown to form complex urban agglomerations. Various definitions of cities can be used. For the official definition of a UK (and therefore English) city, see City status in the United Kingdom.
According to the ONS urban area populations for continuous built-up areas, these are the 15 largest conurbations (population figures from the 2001 census):
Rank Urban Area[58] Population
(2001 Census) Localities Major localities
1 Greater London Urban Area 8,278,251 67 Croydon, Barnet, Ealing, Bromley
2 West Midlands Urban Area 2,284,093 22 Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall
3 Greater Manchester Urban Area 2,240,230 57 Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Stockport, Oldham
4 West Yorkshire Urban Area 1,499,465 26 Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield
5 Tyneside 879,996 25 Newcastle upon Tyne, North Shields, South Shields, Gateshead, Jarrow
6 Liverpool Urban Area 816,216 8 Liverpool, St Helens, Bootle, Huyton-with-Roby
7 Nottingham Urban Area 666,358 15 Nottingham, Beeston and Stapleford, Carlton, Long Eaton
8 Sheffield Urban Area 640,720 7 Sheffield, Rotherham, Chapeltown, Mosborough/Highlane
9 Bristol Urban Area 551,066 7 Bristol, Kingswood, Mangotsfield, Stoke Gifford
10 Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton 461,181 10 Brighton, Worthing, Hove, Littlehampton, Shoreham, Lancing
11 Portsmouth Urban Area 442,252 7 Portsmouth, Gosport, Waterlooville, Fareham
12 Leicester Urban Area 441,213 12 Leicester, Wigston, Oadby, Birstall
13 Bournemouth Urban Area 383,713 5 Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, New Milton
14 Reading/Wokingham Urban Area 369,804 5 Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham, Crowthorne
15 Teesside 365,323 7 Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar, Billingham
Economics
Main article: Economy of England
The City of London is a major business and commercial centre, ranking alongside New York City and Tokyo as the leading centre of global finance.[59]
England's economy is the among the largest in the world. It follows the Anglo-Saxon economic model. England's economy is the largest of the four economies of the United Kingdom, with 100 of Europe's 500 largest corporations based in London.[60] As part of the United Kingdom, England is a major centre of world economics. One of the world's most highly industrialised countries, England is a leader in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors and in key technical industries, particularly aerospace, the arms industry and the manufacturing side of the software industry.
London exports mainly manufactured goods and imports materials such as petroleum, tea, wool, raw sugar, timber, butter, metals, and meat.[61] England exported more than 30,000 tons of beef last year, worth around £75,000,000, with France, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain being the largest importers of beef from England.[62]
The central bank of the United Kingdom, which sets interest rates and implements monetary policy, is the Bank of England in London. London is also home to the London Stock Exchange, the main stock exchange in the UK and the largest in Europe. London is one of the international leaders in finance[63] and the largest financial centre in Europe.
Traditional heavy and manufacturing industries have declined sharply in England in recent decades, as they have in the United Kingdom as a whole. At the same time, service industries have grown in importance. For example, tourism is the sixth largest industry in the UK, contributing 76 billion pounds to the economy. It employs 1,800,000 full-time equivalent people—6.1% of the working population (2002 figures).[64] The largest centre for tourism is London, which attracts millions of international tourists every year.
England's official currency is the Pound Sterling (also known as the British pound or GBP).
Demography
Ceremonial Counties of England, colour-coded to show population. The City of London is not included.
Main article: Demography of England
With 50,431,700 inhabitants (84% of the UK total),[65] England is the most populous and most ethnically diverse nation in the United Kingdom. If it were a sovereign state, England would have the fourth largest population in the European Union and would be the 25th largest country by population in the world.
England's population continues to grow: with the exception of 1976, there have been more births than deaths every year since 1901.[66] While the percentage of people over 65 increases, the percentage of people under 16 is falling, meaning the country's population is ageing overall. With a density of 383 people per square kilometre (992/sq mi),[67] it is the most densely populated country in Europe, having recently overtaken the Netherlands.
The generally accepted view is that the ethnic background of the English populace, before 19th and 20th century immigration, was a mixed European one deriving from historical waves of Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Norman invasions, along with the possible survival of pre-Celtic ancestry.[68]
The economic prosperity of England has also made it a destination for economic migrants from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This was particularly true during the Industrial Revolution.
Since the fall of the British Empire, many denizens of former colonies have migrated to Britain including the Indian sub-continent and the British Caribbean. A BBC-published report of the 2001 census, by the Institute for Public Policy Research stated that the vast majority of immigrants settled in London and the South East of England. The largest groups of residents born in other countries were from the Republic of Ireland, India, Pakistan, Germany, and the Caribbean. Although Germany was high on the list, this was mainly the result of children being born to British forces personnel stationed in that country.[69]
About half the population increase between 1991 and 2001 was due to foreign-born immigration. In 2004 the number of people who became British citizens rose to a record 140,795—a rise of 12% on the previous year. The number had risen dramatically since 2000. The overwhelming majority of new citizens come from Africa (32%) and Asia (40%), the largest three groups being people from India, Pakistan and Somalia.[70] One in five babies in the UK are born to immigrant mothers according to official statistics released in 2007. 21.9% of births in the UK in 2006 were to mothers born outside the United Kingdom compared with just 12.8% in 1995.[71] As of 2007, 22% of primary school children and 17.7% of children at secondary school in England were from ethnic minority families.[72]
In 2006, an estimated 591,000 migrants[73][74] arrived to live in the UK for at least a year, while 400,000 people emigrated from the UK for a year or more, with Australia, Spain, France, New Zealand and the U.S. most popular destinations.[75][76][77] Largest group of arrivals were people from the Indian subcontinent who accounted for two-thirds of net immigration, mainly fueled by family reunion.[78] One in six were from Eastern European countries. They were outnumbered by immigrants from New Commonwealth countries.[79]
The European Union allows free movement between the member states.[80] While France and Germany put in place controls to curb Eastern European migration, the UK and Ireland did not impose restrictions in 2004.[81] The Home Office publishes quarterly statistics on the number of applications to the Worker Registration Scheme. Figures published in August 2007 indicate that 656,395 people were accepted on to the scheme between 1 May 2004 and 30 June 2007, of whom 430,395 were Polish nationals.[82] Many Poles work in seasonal occupations and a large number is likely to move back and forth including between Ireland and other EU Western nations. A quarter of Eastern European migrants, often young and well-educated, planned to stay in Britain permanently. Most of them originally intended to go home but changed their minds later.[83] The 2008 economic crisis in the UK and the growing economy in Poland reduced the economic incentive for Poles to migrate to the UK. By the last quarter of 2008, approximately half of those that had come to the UK to work had returned home.[84]
Culture
Main articles: Culture of England and English Renaissance
The British Museum, London.
England has a vast and influential culture that encompasses elements both old and new. The modern culture of England is sometimes difficult to identify and separate clearly from the culture of the wider United Kingdom, so intertwined are its composite nations. However the English traditional and historic culture remains distinct albeit with substantial regional differences.[85]
English Heritage is a governmental body with a broad remit of managing the historic sites, artefacts and environments of England. London's British Museum, British Library and National Gallery contain the finest collections in the world.[86]
The English have played a significant role in the development of the arts and sciences. Many of the most important figures in the history of modern western scientific and philosophical thought were either born in, or at one time or other resided in, England. Major English thinkers of international significance include scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin and New Zealand-born Ernest Rutherford, philosophers such as John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Bertrand Russell and Thomas Hobbes, and economists such as David Ricardo, and John Maynard Keynes. Karl Marx wrote most of his important works, including Das Kapital, while in exile in Manchester, and the team that developed the first atomic bomb began their work in England, under the wartime codename Tube Alloys.
Architecture
See also: List of historic houses in England and Castles in England
The Broadway Tower is a folly, or mock tower in Worcestershire.
England has played a significant part in the advancement of Western architecture. It is home to the most notable medieval castles and forts in the world, including Warwick Castle, the Tower of London and Windsor Castle (the largest inhabited castle in the world and the oldest in continuous occupation). It is known for its numerous grand country houses, and for its many medieval and later churches and cathedrals, such as York Minster.[87]
English architects have contributed to many styles over the centuries, including Tudor architecture, English Baroque, the Georgian style and Victorian movements such as Gothic Revival. Among the best-known contemporary English architects are Norman Foster and Richard Rogers.[88]
Cuisine
Main article: English cuisine
Sunday roast consisting of roast beef, roast potatoes, vegetables and Yorkshire pudding
Although highly regarded in the Middle Ages, English cuisine later became a source of fun among Britain's French and European neighbours, being viewed until the late 20th century as crude and unsophisticated by comparison with continental tastes. However, with the influx of non-European immigrants (particularly those of south and east Asian origins) from the 1950s onwards, the English diet was transformed. Indian and Chinese cuisine in particular were absorbed into British culinary life, with restaurants and takeaways appearing in almost every town in Britain, and 'going for an Indian' becoming a regular part of British social life. A distinct hybrid food style composed of dishes of Asian origin, but adapted to British tastes, emerged and was subsequently exported to other parts of the world. Many of the well-known Indian dishes in the western world, such as Tikka Masala and Balti, are in fact dishes of this sort.[89]
Dishes forming part of the old tradition of English food include:Apple pie
Bangers and mash
Bedfordshire clanger
Black Pudding
Bubble and Squeak
Cornish pasty
Cottage pie
Devonshire Cream Tea
Faggot and peas Fish and chips
Full English breakfast
Gravy
Jellied eels
Lancashire hotpot
Lincolnshire sausage
Mince pies
Pie and mash
Ploughman's lunch Pork pie
Scouse
Shepherd's pie
Spotted Dick
Steak and kidney pie
Sunday roast
Toad in the hole
Yorkshire pudding
Engineering and innovation
Isaac Newton, promulgator of universal gravitation, Newtonian mechanics and infinitesimal calculus.
Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol, designed by Brunel and completed in 1864.
As birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, England was home to many significant inventors during the late 18th and early 19th century. Famous English engineers include Isambard Kingdom Brunel, best known for the creation of the Great Western Railway, a series of famous steamships, and numerous important bridges, hence revolutionising public transport and modern-day engineering.
In addition, England produced numerous scientists and inventors such as Richard Arkwright, who invented the first industrial spinning machine, while Charles Babbage was the 19th century inventor of the first computer; Alan Turing and Tommy Flowers invented the modern computer, and many of its associated concepts and initial technologies. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, and much of the technologies on which it is based (HTTP, HTML). James Blundell performed the first blood transfusion. Hubert Cecil Booth invented the vacuum cleaner, and James Dyson invented the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner. Edwin Beard Budding invented the lawnmower. George Cayley invented the seat belt. Christopher Cockerell invented the hovercraft, while John Dalton was a pioneer of atomic theory. Michael Faraday, best known for his revolutionary electric motor, also came from England. Thomas Fowler invented the thermosiphon, while Robert Hooke discovered Hooke's law of elasticity. Turn of the 20th century inventor E. Purnell Hooley invented tarmac. Thomas Newcomen and Thomas Savery were both inventors of the first steam engines. Perhaps the most famous is Isaac Newton, who promulgated universal gravitation, Newtonian mechanics and infinitesimal calculus. Other inventors include Stephen Perry, inventor of the rubber band; Percy Shaw, inventor of the "cat's eye" road safety device; George Stephenson and son Robert Stephenson, railway pioneers; Joseph Swan, joint inventor and developer (with American Thomas Edison) of the light bulb; Richard Trevithick, builder of the earliest steam locomotives; Jethro Tull, inventor of the seed drill; Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine; and Joseph Whitworth, inventor of many of the modern techniques and technologies used in precision engineering.
Folklore
Main article: English folklore
The Robin Hood Memorial, by Nottingham Castle.
English folklore is rich and diverse. Many of the land's oldest legends share themes and sources with the Celtic folklore of Wales, Scotland and Ireland, a typical example being the legend of Herne the Hunter, which shares many similarities with the traditional Welsh legend of Gwyn ap Nudd.
Successive waves of pre-Norman invaders and settlers, from the Romans onwards, via Saxons, Jutes, Angles, Norse to the Norman Conquest have influenced the myth and legend of England. Some tales, such as that of The Lambton Worm show a distinct Norse influence, while others, particularly the events and characters associated with the Arthurian legends show a distinct Romano-Gaulic slant.[90]
Among the most famous English folk-tales are the legends of King Arthur, although it would be wrong to regard these stories as purely English in origin as they also concern Wales and, to a lesser extent, Ireland and Scotland. They should therefore be considered as part of the folklore of the British Isles as a whole.
Post-Norman stories include the tales of Robin Hood, which exists in many forms, and stories of other folk heroes such as Hereward the Wake and Fulk FitzWarin who, although being based on historical characters, have grown to become legends in their own right.
Literature
William Shakespeare, the English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and one of the greatest in Western literature.[91][92][93]
Main article: English literature
The English language has a rich and prominent literary heritage. England has produced a wealth of significant literary figures including playwrights William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Webster, as well as writers Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, H. G. Wells, George Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell and Harold Pinter. Others, such as J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling, Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie have been among the best-selling novelists of the last century.
Among the poets, Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sydney, Thomas Kyd, John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, John Keats, John Milton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, T. S. Eliot (American-born, but a British subject from 1927) and many others remain read and studied around the world. Among men of letters, Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt and George Orwell are some of the most famous. England continues to produce writers working in branches of literature, and in a wide range of styles; contemporary English literary writers attracting international attention include Martin Amis, Julian Barnes and Zadie Smith.
Music
Main article: Music of England
The composer Sir Edward Elgar is primarily remembered for his orchestral music, some of which develops patriotic themes.
Composers from England have not achieved recognition as broad as that earned by their literary counterparts, and, particularly during the 19th century, were overshadowed in international reputation by other European composers; however, many works of earlier composers such as Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, and Henry Purcell are still frequently performed throughout the world today. A revival of England's musical status began during the 20th century with the prominence of composers such as Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, William Walton, Eric Coates, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frederick Delius and Benjamin Britten.
In popular music, however, English bands and solo artists have been cited as the most influential and best-selling musicians of all time. Acts such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Queen, and The Rolling Stones are among the highest selling in the world.[94] England is also credited with being the birthplace of many musical genres and movements such as hard rock, British invasion, heavy metal, britpop, glam rock, drum and bass, progressive rock, punk rock, gothic rock, shoegazing, acid house, UK garage, trip hop and dubstep.
Science and philosophy
Charles Darwin.
Prominent English figures from the field of science and mathematics include Sir Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Joseph Priestley, J. J. Thomson, Charles Babbage, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, Christopher Wren, Alan Turing, Francis Crick, Joseph Lister, Tim Berners-Lee, Andrew Wiles and Richard Dawkins. Some experts claim that the earliest concept of a Metric system was invented by John Wilkins, first secretary of the Royal Society in 1668.[95]
England played a major role in the development of Western philosophy, particularly during the Enlightenment. Jeremy Bentham, leader of the Philosophical Radicals influenced the development of English Law and of socialism.[96] although the Levellers and other radical movements of the Civil War were significant. Major English philosophers include William of Ockham, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Bertrand Russell and Bernard Williams.
Sport
Main article: Sport in England
England's new Wembley Stadium. It is the most expensive stadium ever built.[97]
The Wimbledon Championships, a Grand Slam tournament, is held in Wimbledon, London every June/July.
Modern sports were codified in England during the 19th century, among them cricket, rugby union and rugby league, football, tennis and badminton. Of these, association football, cricket and rugby remain the country's most popular spectator sports.
England contains more UEFA 5 star and 4 star rated stadia than any other country, and is home to some of the sport's top clubs. Among these, Aston Villa, Liverpool FC, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest have won the European Cup. The England national football team are currently ranked 15th by FIFA[98] and 8th by Elo[99]) and won the World Cup in 1966 when it was hosted in England. Since then, they have failed to reach a final of a major international tournament, although they reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in 1990 and the quarter-finals in 2002 and 2006 and Euro 2004. More recently, England failed to qualify for the Euro 2008 championships when it lost 2–3 to Croatia on 21 November 2007 in its final qualifying match. England, playing at home at Wembley Stadium, needed just a draw to ensure qualification. This is the first time since the 1994 World Cup that England has failed to qualify for a major football championship and first time since 1984 that the team will miss the UEFA European Championship. On 22 November 2007, the day after the defeat to Croatia, England fired its football coach, Steve McClaren and his assistant Terry Venables, ostensibly as a direct consequence of its failure to qualify for Euro 2008.[100]
The England national rugby union team won the 2003 Rugby World Cup (and finishing as runners-up in 2007). Rugby union clubs such as Leicester Tigers, London Wasps and the Northampton Saints have had success in the Europe-wide Heineken Cup.
At rugby league, the England national rugby league team are ranked third in the world and first in Europe. They have taken part in three World Cup's finishing second in 1975 and 1995, hosting the competition in the latter. In 2008 the team will once again contest the World Cup in Australia. From 2008 England will become a full test nation in lieu of the Great Britain national rugby league team, when that team is retired. At a domestic level, England is host to large clubs like Leeds Rhinos, St Helens and Wigan Warriors, all of whom have won the World Club Challenge and have produced some of the world's greats. It is in Huddersfield in 1895 that the game was born.
The England cricket team is a composite England and Wales Cricket Team. It has seen mixed fortunes in recent years but won The Ashes in 2005, and is currently ranked the fourth best Test nation in the world. The 2009 ICC World T20 will be hosted in England and Wales, and the 2018 Cricket World Cup may also be hosted in England.
Sport England is the governing body responsible for distributing funds and providing strategic guidance for sporting activity in England.
The 2012 Summer Olympics are to be hosted by London, England. It will run from 26 July to 12 August 2012. London will become the first city to have hosted the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and 1948.
Language
English
Places in the world where English is spoken. Countries where it is the majority language are dark blue; countries where it is an official but not majority language are light blue.
Beowulf is one of the oldest surviving epic poems in what is identifiable as a form of the English language.
Main articles: English language and History of the English language
As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially designated as such). An Indo-European language in the Anglo-Frisian branch of the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and the Frisian languages. As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English" emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived.
Used by aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French language of the new Anglo-Norman aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came back into fashion among classes and for official business except certain traditional ceremonies, some of which survive to this day. Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence, both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has extended this custom, willing to incorporate foreign-influenced words.
It is most commonly accepted that — thanks in large part to the British Empire, and now the United States — the English language is now the world's unofficial lingua franca.[101] English language learning and teaching is an important economic sector, including language schools, tourism spending, and publishing houses.
Other languages
There is no UK legislation in respect of language use within England,[102] but English is the only language used in England for general official business. The only non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency, currently by about 2,000 people.[103] This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County Council has produced a draft strategy to develop these plans. There is, however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border, and there are over 100,000 Welsh speakers in London and areas such as Oswestry on the Welsh border[104]
Most deaf people within England use British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 250,000 people throughout the UK use BSL as their first or preferred language,[105] but does not give statistics specific to England. BSL is not an official language of the UK and most British government departments and hospitals have limited facilities for deaf sign language users. The Disability Discrimination Act gives sign language users the right to request 'reasonable adjustment', which is generally interpreted to mean that interpreters should be provided wherever practical. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL interpreters.
Different languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, have been brought to England by immigrants. Many of these are widely spoken within ethnic minority communities, with Bengali, Hindi, Sinhala, Tamil, Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati, Polish, Greek, Turkish and Cantonese being the most common languages that people living in Britain consider their first language. These are often used by official bodies to communicate with the relevant sections of the community, particularly in large cities, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis rather than as the result of specific legislative ordinances.
Other languages have also traditionally been spoken by minority populations in England, including Romany. The use of Yiddish by the Jewish population has dwindled, although an increasing number are able to speak Hebrew.
Despite the relatively small size of the nation, there are many distinct English regional accents. Those with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood elsewhere in the country. Use of foreign non-standard varieties of English (such as Caribbean English) is also increasingly widespread, mainly because of the effects of immigration.
Religion
Main article: Religion in England
Due to immigration in the past decades, there is an enormous diversity of religious belief in England, as well as a growing percentage that have no religious affiliation. Levels of attendance in various denominations have begun to decline.[106][107] England is classed largely as a secular country even allowing for the following affiliation percentages : Christianity: 71.6%, Islam: 3.1%, Hindu: 1.1%, Sikh: 0.7%, Jewish: 0.5%, and Buddhist: 0.3%, No religion: 14.6%.[108] The EU Eurobarometer poll of 2005 shows that only 38% of people in the UK believe in a god, while 40% believe in "some sort of spirit or life force" and 20% do not believe in either.[109]
Christianity
Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, the centre of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion.
See also: Churches Together in England
Christianity reached England through missionaries from Scotland and from Continental Europe; the era of St. Augustine (the first Archbishop of Canterbury) and the Celtic Christian missionaries in the north (notably St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert). The Synod of Whitby in 664 ultimately led to the English Church being fully part of Roman Catholicism. Early English Christian documents surviving from this time include the 7th century illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels and the historical accounts written by the Venerable Bede. England has many early cathedrals, most notably York Minster (1080), Durham Cathedral (1093) and Salisbury Cathedral (1220), In 1536, the Church was split from Rome over the issue of the divorce of King Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon. The split led to the emergence of a separate ecclesiastical authority, and later the influence of the Reformation, resulting in the Church of England and Anglicanism. Unlike the other three constituent countries of the UK, the Church of England is an established church (although the Church of Scotland is a 'national church' recognised in law).
The 16th century break with Rome under the reign of King Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries had major consequences for the Church (as well as for politics). The Church of England remains the largest Christian church in England; it is part of the Anglican Communion. Many of the Church of England's cathedrals and parish churches are historic buildings of significant architectural importance.
Other major Christian Protestant denominations in England include the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church and the United Reformed Church. Smaller denominations, but not insignificant, include the Religious Society of Friends (the "Quakers") and the Salvation Army — both founded in England. There are also Afro-Caribbean Churches, especially in the London area.
The Roman Catholic Church re-established a hierarchy in England in the 19th century. Attendances were considerably boosted by immigration, especially from Ireland and more recently Poland.
The Church of England remains the official established church of England.
Other religions
Throughout the second half of the 20th century, immigration from many colonial countries, often from South Asia and the Middle East have resulted in a considerable growth in Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism in England. Cities and towns with large Muslim communities include Birmingham, Blackburn, Coventry, Bolton, Bradford, Leicester, London, Luton, Manchester, Oldham and Sheffield. Cities and towns with large Sikh communities include London, Slough, Staines, Hounslow, Southall, Reading, Ilford, Barking, Dagenham, Leicester, Leeds, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and others.
The Jewish community in England is mainly in the Greater London area, particularly the north west suburbs such as Golders Green;[110] although Manchester, Leeds and Gateshead also have significant Jewish communities.[111][112] England was also the founding place for many Neopagan religions, notably Wicca.[113]
Education
Main article: Education in England
See also: List of universities in England
Christ Church, University of Oxford.
The chapel of King's College, Cambridge University.
There is a long history of the promotion of education in England in schools, colleges and universities. England is home to the oldest existing schools in the English speaking world: The King's School, Canterbury and The King's School, Rochester, believed to be founded in the 6th and 7th century respectively. At least eight existing schools in England were founded in the first millennium. Sherborne School was granted a royal charter in 1550, but may have been the site of a school since the 8th century.[114] Most of these ancient institutions are now fee-paying schools; however, some state schools are also very old, most notably Beverley Grammar School founded in 700. The oldest surviving girls' school in England is Red Maids' School founded in 1634. The most famous schools in England are now fee-paying institutions, including Winchester College (founded 1382), Eton College (1440), St Paul's School (1509), Rugby School (1567) and Harrow School (1572).[115]
England is also home to the two oldest universities in the English speaking world: Oxford University (12th century) and Cambridge University (early 13th century). There are now more than 90 universities in England.[116]
Primary and secondary education in England is administered by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Schools are of two main types: state schools funded through taxation and free to all, and private schools (also known as "public" or "independent" schools) funded through fees. Standards are monitored by regular inspections of state-funded schools by the Office for Standards in Education, and of private schools by the Independent Schools Inspectorate.
University education is the responsibility of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. Students attending English Universities now have to pay tuition fees towards the cost of their education, as do English students who choose to attend a Scottish university (though Scottish students attending Scottish universities get their fees paid for them by the Scottish Government.)
Healthcare
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. The NHS is England's publicly funded healthcare system.
Main article: Healthcare in England
The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England responsible for provided the majority of healthcare in the country. The NHS provides most services at no cost to the patient though there are charges associated with eye tests, dental care, prescriptions, and many aspects of personal care.
The NHS began on 5 July 1948, putting into effect the provisions of the National Health Service Act 1946. Private health care has continued parallel to the NHS, paid for largely by private insurance, but it is used by less than 8% of the population, and generally as a top-up to NHS services. Recently the private sector has been increasingly used to increase NHS capacity despite a large proportion of the public opposing such involvement.[117]
The NHS is largely funded from general taxation (including a proportion from National Insurance payments).[118] The UK government department responsible for the NHS is the Department of Health, headed by the Secretary of State for Health (Health Secretary), who sits in the British Cabinet. Most of the expenditure of The Department of Health (£98.6 billion in 2008–9[119]) is spent on the NHS.
Transport
Heathrow Terminal 5. London Heathrow Airport has the most international passenger traffic of any airport in the world.[120][121]
A Eurostar high speed train.
Main article: Transport in England
The government department overseeing transport is the Department for Transport.
The growth in private car ownership in the latter half of the 20th century led to major road-building programmes. Important trunk roads built include the A1 Great North Road from London to Newcastle and Edinburgh, and the A580 "East Lancs." road between Liverpool and Manchester. The M6 motorway is the country's longest motorway running from Rugby through North West England to the Scottish border. Other major roads include the M1 motorway from London to Leeds up the east of the country, the M25 motorway which encircles London, the M60 motorway which encircles Manchester, the M4 motorway from London to South Wales, the M62 motorway from Liverpool to Manchester and Yorkshire, and the M5 motorway from Birmingham to Bristol and the South West.
Most of the British National Rail network of 16,116 kilometres (10,014 mi) lies in England. Urban rail networks are also well developed in London and other cities, including the Manchester Metrolink and the London Underground. The London Underground is the oldest and most extensive underground railway in the world, and as of 2007 consists of 407 km (253 mi) of line[122] and serves 275 stations.
There are around 7,100 km (4,400 mi) of navigable waterways in England, of which roughly half is owned by British Waterways. An estimated 165 million journeys are made by people on Britain's waterways annually. The Thames is the major waterway in England, with imports and exports focused at the Port of Tilbury, one of the three major ports in the UK. Ports in the UK handled over 560 million tonnes of domestic and international freight in 2005.[123]
London Heathrow Airport is England's largest airport, the largest airport by passenger volume in Europe and one of the world's busiest airports. London Gatwick Airport is England's second largest airport, followed by Manchester Airport. Other major airports include London Stansted Airport in Essex, about 50 kilometres (30 mi) north of London, Luton Airport and Birmingham International Airport.
People
Main article: English people
Statue of Alfred the Great in Winchester
The ancestry of the English, considered as an ethnic group, is mixed; it can be traced to the mostly Celtic Romano-Britons,[124] to the eponymous Anglo-Saxons,[125] the Danish-Vikings[126] that formed the Danelaw during the time of Alfred the Great and the Normans,[127][128] among others. The 19th and 20th centuries, furthermore, brought much new immigration to England.
Ethnicity aside, the simplest view is that an English person is someone who was born or lives in England, holds British nationality and regards themselves as English, regardless of his or her racial origin. It has, however, been a notoriously complicated, emotive and controversial identity to delimit. Centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state. The English frequently include themselves and their neighbours in the wider term of "British" or even use English when they should use British. Over the last five years, celebrations of St George's Day, England's national day, have increased year on year.[129]
Modern celebration of English identity is often found around its sports, one field in which the British Home Nations often compete individually. The English football team, rugby union team and cricket team often cause increases in the popularity of celebrating Englishness.
Nomenclature
The country is named after the Angles, one of several Germanic tribes who settled the country in the fifth and sixth centuries. There are two distinct linguistic patterns for the name of the country.
Most Celtic languages use names referring to the Saxons, another family of Germanic tribes that arrived at about the same time as the Angles.
"Bro-Saoz" (Breton)
"Pow Sows" (Cornish)
"Sasana" (Irish)
"Sostyn" (Manx)
"Sasainn" (Scottish Gaelic)
"Lloegr" (Welsh), an ancient geographic term and not Saxon-related; but the inhabitants are referred to as "Saeson".
Most other European languages use names similar to "England":
"Anglaterra" (Catalan)
"Angleterre" (French)
"Αγγλία" ("Anglía") (Greek)
"Anglia" (Latin, Polish, Romanian, Albanian, Hungarian)
"Anglicko" (Slovak)
"Anglie" (Czech)
"Anglija" (Slovene, Lithuanian, Latvian, Ukrainian)
"Англия" (Angliya) (Russian, Bulgarian)
"Engeland" (Dutch)
"England" (Danish, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Luxembourgish)
"Englanti" (Finnish)
"Ingalaterra" (Basque)
"Inghilterra" (Italian)
"Ingiltera" (Maltese, Egyptian)
"Inglaterra" (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician)
"Engleska" (Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian)
"Inglismaa" (Estonian)
"Inlaterra" (Leonese)
Names in African languages:
"እንግሊዝኛ" (ənglizña) (Amharic)
"Ingriis" (Somali)
"Tinglizt" (Berber)
"Uingereza" (Ou-I-ng'e-re-za) (Swahili)
Names in Asian languages:
"İngiltere" (Turkish)
"ინგლისი" ("inglisi") (Georgian)
"אנגליה" (Anglia) (Hebrew)
"إنجلترا" (Ingiltra) or "إنكلترا" (Inkiltra) (Arabic)
"انگلستان" (Inglistan) (Hindi, Urdu, Persian)
"eng-ge-re-ji" (Punjabi)
"Engalaantha" (Sri Lankans (Sinhalese))
"ইংল্যান্ড" (Ingland) (Bengali)
"இங்கிலாந்து" (In-gi-laan-dhu) (Tamil)
"อังกฤษ" (Ang-grit) (Thai)
"Anh Quôc" (Vietnamese)
"Inggris" (Indonesian)
"英倫" (Ying-lun) (Cantonese)
"英格蘭"/"英格兰" (Yīnggélán) (Standard Mandarin Chinese)
"잉글랜드" (Ing-geul-laen-deu) (Korean)
"イングランド" (Ingurando) (Japanese)
Alternative names include:
The slang "Blighty", from the Hindustani bila yati meaning "foreign".
The ancient name "Albion", supposedly referring to the white (Latin: alba) cliffs of Dover. Although it refers to the whole island of Great Britain, it is occasionally, and incorrectly, used for England. Following the Roman conquest of Britain, the term contracted to mean only the area north of Roman control and is today a relative of Alba, the Celtic languages name for Scotland.
More poetically, England has been called "this sceptred isle... this other Eden" and "this green and pleasant land", quotations from the poetry of William Shakespeare (in Richard II) and William Blake (And did those feet in ancient time) respectively.
Slang terms sometimes used for the people of England include "Sassenachs" or "Sasanachs" (from the Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic respectively, both originally meaning "Saxon", and originally a Scottish Highland term for Lowland Scots), "Limeys" (in reference to the citrus fruits carried aboard English sailing vessels to prevent scurvy) and "Pom/Pommy" (used in Australian English and New Zealand English), but these may be perceived as offensive. Also see alternative words for British.
National symbols, insignia and anthems
Main article: National symbols of England
Saint George slaying the dragon, by Paolo Uccello, c. 1470.
Main articles: Flag of England and Coat of arms of England
The two main symbols of England are the St George's Cross (the English flag), and the Three Lions coat of arms of England.
Other national symbols exist, but have varying degrees of official usage, such as the oak tree and the rose.
England's National Day is St George's Day (Saint George being the patron saint), which is on 23 April.[130]
St. George's Cross
Main article: St. George's Cross
The flag of England is the St George's Cross. The red cross appeared as an emblem of England during the Middle Ages and the Crusades and is one of the earliest known emblems representing England.
The St. George's Cross is a red cross on a white background and is the flag of England.
It is believed to have been adopted for the uniform of English soldiers during the Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.[131] From about 1277 it became the national flag of England.
St. George's Cross was originally the flag of Genoa and was adopted by England and the City of London in 1190 for their ships entering the Mediterranean to benefit from the protection of the powerful Genoese fleet. The maritime Republic of Genoa was rising and going to become, with its rival Venice, one of the most important powers in the world. The English Monarch paid an annual tribute to the Doge of Genoa for this privilege. The cross of St George would become the official Flag of England.
A red cross acted as a symbol for many Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. It became associated with St. George and England, along with other countries and cities (such as Georgia, Milan and the Republic of Genoa), which claimed him as their patron saint and used his cross as a banner. It remained in national use until 1707, when the Union Flag (also known as the Union Jack, especially at sea) which English and Scottish ships had used at sea since 1606, was adopted for purposes to unite the whole of Great Britain under a common flag. The flag of England no longer has much of an official role, but it is widely flown by Church of England properties and at sporting events.
Until recently, the flag was not commonly flown in England with the British Union Flag being used instead. This was certainly evident at the 1966 football World Cup when English fans predominantly flew the latter. However, since devolution in the United Kingdom, the St George Cross has experienced a growth in popularity and is now the predominant flag used in English sporting events.[132]
Three Lions
The coat of arms of England are described as gules, three lions passant guardant or armed and langued Azure.[133] The earliest surviving record of their use was by Richard I ("Richard the Lionheart") in the late 12th century.
Since union with Scotland and Northern Ireland, the arms of England are no longer used on their own; instead they form a part of the conjoined Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. However, both the Football Association and the England and Wales Cricket Board use logos based on the three lions. In recent years, it has been common to see banners of the arms flown at English football matches, in the same way the Lion Rampant is flown in Scotland.
In 1996, Three Lions was the official song of the England football team for the 1996 European Football Championship, which were held in England.
Rose
The Tudor rose is the national floral emblem of England, and was adopted as a national emblem of England around the time of the Wars of the Roses.[134]
The rose is used in a variety of contexts in its use for England's representation. The Rose of England is a Royal Badge, and is a Tudor, or half-red-half-white rose,[135] symbolising the end of the Wars of the Roses and the subsequent marriage between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. This symbolism is reflected in the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom and the crest of the FA. However, the rose of England is often displayed as a red rose (which also symbolises Lancashire), such as the badge of the England national rugby union team. A white rose (which also symbolises Yorkshire) is also used on different occasions.
Anthem
England does not have an official designated national anthem, as the United Kingdom as a whole has "God Save the Queen". However, the following are often considered unofficial English national anthems:
"I Vow to Thee, My Country"
"Land of Hope and Glory"
"Nimrod"
"Jerusalem"
"Heart of Oak"
"God Save the Queen" is usually played for English sporting events, such as football matches, against teams from outside the UK,[136] although "Land of Hope and Glory" was used as the English anthem for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.[137] Since 2004, "Jerusalem" has been sung before England cricket matches,[138] and "Rule Britannia" ("Britannia" being the Roman name for Great Britain, a personification of the United Kingdom) was often used in the past for the English national football team when they played against another of the home nations. More recently, however, "God Save the Queen" has been used by the rugby union and football teams.[136]
References
^ "KS06 Ethnic group: Census 2001, Key Statistics for local Authorities". Statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
^ "Population Estimates by Ethnic Group (experimental)".
^ "Population Estimates by Ethnic Group (experimental)".
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^ Economics page 696 Michael Parkin, Melanie Powell, Kent Matthew; Published by Addison-Wesley, 2007; ISBN 0132041227, 9780132041225
^ Economics page 697 Michael Parkin, Melanie Powell, Kent Matthew; Published by Addison-Wesley, 2007; ISBN 0132041227, 9780132041225
^ Economics page 697 Michael Parkin, Melanie Powell, Kent Matthew; Published by Addison-Wesley, 2007; ISBN 0132041227, 9780132041225
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^ The official definition of LUZ (Larger Urban Zone) is used by the European Statistical Agency (Eurostat) when describing conurbations and areas of high population. This definition ranks London highest, above Paris (see Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) in the European Union); and a ranking of population within municipal boundaries also puts London on top (see Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits). However, research by the University of Avignon in France ranks Paris first and London second when including the whole urban area and hinterland, that is the outlying cities as well (see Largest urban areas of the European Union).
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^ Stephen Oppenheimer, The Origins of the British, Constable and Robinson
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^ Cf. "The Reformation must not be confused with the changes introduced into the Church of England during the 'Reformation Parliament' of 1529–36, which were of a political rather than a religious nature, designed to unite the secular and religious sources of authority within a single sovereign power: the Anglican Church did not until later make substantial change in doctrine". Roger Scruton, A Dictionary Political Thought, Macmillan: 1996, p.470.
^ a b c Colley, Linda (2005) [1994]. Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837. Yale University Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0300059250.
^ Ross, David (2002). Chronology of Scottish History. Geddes & Grosset. p. 56. ISBN 1-85534-380-0. "1603: James VI becomes James I of England in the Union of the Crowns, and leaves Edinburgh for London"
^ Articles of Union with Scotland 1707 www.parliament.uk
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^ Treaty of Union www.scotshistoryonline. Retrieved 6 August 2008
^ Groups such as Mebyon Kernow who proclaim a distinct national identity for Cornwall and campaign for a Cornish assembly would dispute this claim.
^ Scottish and Welsh MPs are also unable to vote on devolved issues affecting their own constituencies.
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^ "Campaign for an Independent England – Welcome to the Campaign for an Independent England". Englishindependence.com. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
^ BBC politics. Retrieved 12 November 2006.
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^ Results: England bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 21 August 2008
^ "Welcome to the national site of the Government Office Network". gos.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2008-07-31.
^ "The Government is now expected to tear up its twelve-year-old plan to create eight or nine regional assemblies in England to mirror devolution in Scotland and Wales.""Prescott's dream in tatters as North East rejects assembly". The Times. Retrieved on 2008-02-15.
^ BBC talking point. Retrieved 12 November 2006.
^ Common law - Tiscali reference. URL retrieved 6 June 2007.
^ Constitutional reform: A Supreme Court for the United KingdomPDF (252 KB), Department for Constitutional Affairs. Retrieved on 2006-05-22
^ Crime over the last 25 years homeoffice.gov.uk
^ New record high prison population BBC News, 8 February 2008
^ Crawford, Adam. The Local Governance of Crime: Appeals to Community and Partnerships, 1997.
^ Eurotunnel.com – UK History
^ "TravelBritain – Kent".
^ Temperature record changes hands BBC News, 30 September 2003. Retrieved 12 September 2006.
^ English Climate Met Office. Retrieved 12 September 2006.
^ The UK’s major urban areas Office for National Statistics
^ Z/Yen Limited (November 2005). "The Competitive Position of London as a Global Financial Centre" (PDF). CityOfLondon.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2006-09-17.
^ Financial Centre, by the Corporation of the City of London. Retrieved 20 November 2006.
^ Fact Monster. Retrieved 18 November 2006.
^ Eblex. Retrieved 18 November 2006.
^ The Competitive Position of London as a Global Financial Centre (PDF) (November 2005), City of London government.
^ Visit Britain. Retrieved 18 November 2006.
^ Population Estimates National Statistics Online, 24 August 2006. Retrieved 12 September 2006
^ Population Estimates National Statistics Online, 24 August 2006. Retrieved 12 September 2006.
^ Retrieved 19 November 2006
^ http://www.academon.com/lib/paper/6359.html Papers on "Class Struggles in 19th Century England" and similar term paper topics, Paper #006359; 2000-2009, Academic Resources Center Inc. and Essays 411 Retrieved 2009-03-07 19:36:23
^ BBC – "British Immigration Map Revealed". Retrieved 16 May 2007.
^ "BBC Thousands in UK citizenship queue".
^ "1 in 5 babies in Britain born to immigrants".
^ Graeme Paton (2007-10-01). "One fifth of children from ethnic minorities". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
^ "Half a million migrants pour into Britain in a year".
^ "National Statistics Online – Immigration over half a million".
^ "Record numbers seek new lives abroad".
^ "Indians largest group among new immigrants to UK".
^ "1500 immigrants arrive in Britain daily, report says".
^ "1,500 migrants enter UK a day".
^ "Emigration soars as Britons desert the UK".
^ 'Why I left UK to return to Poland', BBC News
^ EU free movement of labour map, BBC News, July 28, 2008
^ Home Office, Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue & Customs and Communities and Local Government, Accession Monitoring Report: A8 Countries, May 2004-June 2007, 21 August 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2007.
^ 750,000 and rising: how Polish workers have built a home in Britain.
^ Packing up for home: Poles hit by UK's economic downturn, This is London, October 20, 2008
^ Christopher, David. British Culture: An Introduction, 1999.
^ Easthope, Anthony. Englishness and National Culture, 1999.
^ Samuel, Raphael. Theatres of Memory: Volume I, Past and Present in Contemporary Culture, 1994.
^ Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. "England Rural Development Programme, 2000–2006," http://www.maff.gov.uk/erdp/docs/national/programmecontentshome.htm, October 2000
^ http://www.anglobilia.com/culture.html; Retrieved March 7, 2009 Englands Culture
^ B. Branston The Lost Gods of England.
^ Encyclopedia Britannica article on Shakespeare. Retrieved 26 February 2006.
^ "MSN Encarta Encyclopedia article on Shakespeare". MSN Encarta Encyclopedia article on Shakespeare.
^ "Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia article on Shakespeare". Retrieved on 26 February 2006.
^ "RIAA". RIAA. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
^ "Metric system was British — BBC video news".
^ Bertrand Russell (1946). History of Western Philosophy.
^ "Wembley kick-off: Stadium is ready and England play first game in fortnight". Daily Mail. 2007-03-09. Retrieved on 2007-03-19.
^ "FIFA World rankings".
^ "World Football Elo rankings".
^ Harris, Rob (2007-11-22). "England fires coach Steve McClaren after failure to qualify for Euro 2008". Associated Press. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
^ English: Not America's Language? by Mauro E. Mujica - The Globalist > > Global Culture. URL retrieved 6 June 2007.
^ Yaelf. Retrieved 15 November 2006.
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^ "Welsh language: Information from". Answers.com. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
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^ Gledhill, Ruth (8 May 2008). "Churchgoing on its knees as Christianity falls out of favour". The Times (The Times). Retrieved on 2008-07-01.
^ "Minorities prop up church-going". BBC (BBC). 18 September 2006. Retrieved on 2008-07-01.
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^ Manchester Jewish Synagogues, Judaism, Hebrew Congregations and Jewish Organisations in Greater Manchester. URL retrieved 6 June 2007.
^ Rabbi Bezalel Rakow – Guardian Unlimited. URL retrieved 6 June 2007.
^ "History Of Wicca In England: 1939 - Present Day (The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum)". Ecauldron.com. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
^ http://www.nndb.com/edu/846/000111513/ 2002 Soylent Communications; Retrieved 2009, March 08
^ "Research, education & online exhibitions > Family history > In depth guide to family history > People at work > Apprentices". The National Archives. Retrieved on 2008-06-16.
^ "FAQs on the higher education sector and UK universities". Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
^ "Survey of the general public's views on NHS system reform in England" (PDF). British Medical Association. 2007-06-01.
^ "NHS Funding need not damage business health". Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales. 2008-03-14. Retrieved on 2008-03-31.
^ HM Treasury (2008-03-24). "Budget 2008, Chapter C" (PDF). 23. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
^ "Heathrow 'needs a third runway'". BBC. Retrieved on 2008-10-17.
^ "Statistics: Top 30 World airports" (PDF). Airports Council International. Retrieved on 2008-10-15.
^ BBC. Retrieved 20 November 2006.
^ Department for Transport, Transport Trends 2006 (PDF). Retrieved 17 February 2007.
^ Roman Britons after 410 by Martin Henig: British Archaeology. Retrieved 22 October 2006.
^ Anglo-Saxon Origins: The Reality of the Myth by Malcolm Todd. Retrieved 22 October 2006.
^ Legacy of the Vikings By Elaine Treharne, BBC History. Retrieved 22 October 2006.
^ What Did the Normans Do for Us? By Dr John Hudson, BBC History. Retrieved 22 October 2006.
^ The Adventure of the English, Melvyn Bragg, 2003. Pg 21
^ St George's events 'not enough'. BBC News, 23 April 2005. Retrieved 12 September 2006.
^ "The Great Saint George Revival". BBC News. 23 April 1998. Retrieved on 2006-12-08.
^ "St. George – England's Patron Saint". Britannia.com. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
^ Clarke, James (2006-11-13). "England |Football – shaping a new England?". BBC News. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
^ Brooke-Little, J.P., FSA (1978) [1950]. Boutell's Heraldry (Revised Edition ed.). London: Frederick Warne LTD. pp. 205–222. ISBN 0-7232-2096-4
^ National Flowers of the UK, 10 Downing Street. Retrieved 14 September 2006.
^ England's Rose – The Official History, Sport Network. Museum of Rugby, 3 June 2005. Retrieved 18 September 2006.
^ a b "Guardian — National Anthem faces red card".
^ "New Statesman – Sport – Jason Cowley loves the Commonwealth Games". Retrieved on 2007-06-18.
^ "Anthem 4 England — Jerusalem — English Anthems — News". Retrieved on 2007-06-18.
External links
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Learning resources from Wikiversity
Official website of the United Kingdom Government
Office for National Statistics
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UK & Ireland Genealogy
lunes, 23 de marzo de 2009
english
English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries[7] and that of the United States from the late 19th century onwards. It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and is the preferred language of many international organizations.
Historically, English originated from several dialects (now called Old English) which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek.Contents [hide]
1 Significance
2 History
3 Classification and related languages
4 Geographical distribution
4.1 Countries in order of total speakers
4.2 English as a global language
4.3 Dialects and regional varieties
4.4 Constructed varieties of English
5 Phonology
5.1 Vowels
5.1.1 Notes
5.2 Consonants
5.2.1 Notes
5.2.2 Voicing and aspiration
5.3 Supra-segmental features
5.3.1 Tone groups
5.3.2 Characteristics of intonation
6 Grammar
7 Vocabulary
7.1 Number of words in English
7.2 Word origins
7.2.1 Dutch origins
7.2.2 French origins
8 Writing system
8.1 Basic sound-letter correspondence
8.2 Written accents
9 Formal written English
10 Basic and simplified versions
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
14 External links
14.1 Dictionaries
[edit]
Significance
Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca,[8][9] is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy.[10] Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global.[11] It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet.[9]
A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations.
Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition.[12] Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time.[13]
[edit]
History
Main article: History of the English language
English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the Northern Netherlands[citation needed] in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles,[14] who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain,[15] leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe.
The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland,[16][17] Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language.[18] Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English.[19]
Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain[citation needed]. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication).
Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary.
The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world.
[edit]
Classification and related languages
The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology.[citation needed]
Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Änderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon).[citation needed]
Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum).
Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup d’état) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress.[citation needed] Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be").[citation needed]
[edit]
Geographical distribution
See also: List of countries by English-speaking population[show]
v • d • e
The English-speaking world
Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world
Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language.[20] English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.[21][22] However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)".[6][23] Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined.[24][25] There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.[26]
The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million),[27] United Kingdom (61 million),[28] Canada (18.2 million),[29] Australia (15.5 million),[30] Ireland (3.8 million),[28] South Africa (3.7 million),[31] and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million).[32] Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world.[33] Following India is the People's Republic of China.[34]
[edit]
Countries in order of total speakersRank Country Total Percent of population First language As an additional language Comment
1 United States 251,388,301 83% 215,423,557 35,964,744 Source: US Census 2006: Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2006, Table 1. Figure for second language speakers are respondents who reported they do not speak English at home but know it "very well" or "well". Note: figures are for population age 5 and older
2 India 90,000,000 8% 178,598 65,000,000 second language speakers.
25,000,000 third language speakers Figures include both those who speak English as a second language and those who speak it as a third language. 1991 figures.[35][36] The figures include English speakers, but not English users.[37]
3 Nigeria 79,000,000 53% 4,000,000 >75,000,000 Figures are for speakers of Nigerian Pidgin, an English-based pidgin or creole. Ihemere gives a range of roughly 3 to 5 million native speakers; the midpoint of the range is used in the table. Ihemere, Kelechukwu Uchechukwu. 2006. "A Basic Description and Analytic Treatment of Noun Clauses in Nigerian Pidgin." Nordic Journal of African Studies 15(3): 296–313.
4 United Kingdom 59,600,000 98% 58,100,000 1,500,000 Source: Crystal (2005), p. 109.
5 Philippines 45,900,000 52% 27,000 42,500,000 Total speakers: Census 2000, text above Figure 7. 63.71% of the 66.7 million people aged 5 years or more could speak English. Native speakers: Census 1995, as quoted by Andrew Gonzalez in The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 19 (5&6), 487-525. (1998)
6 Canada 25,246,220 76% 17,694,830 7,551,390 Source: 2001 Census - Knowledge of Official Languages and Mother Tongue. The native speakers figure comprises 122,660 people with both French and English as a mother tongue, plus 17,572,170 people with English and not French as a mother tongue.
7 Australia 18,172,989 92% 15,581,329 2,591,660 Source: 2006 Census.[38] The figure shown in the first language English speakers column is actually the number of Australian residents who speak only English at home. The additional language column shows the number of other residents who claim to speak English "well" or "very well". Another 5% of residents did not state their home language or English proficiency.
Note: Total = First language + Other language; Percentage = Total / Population (not given)
English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States.
In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico)[39], former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles.
English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom.[40][41] Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments.[42] English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate.[43]
[edit]
English as a global language
See also: English in computing, International English, and World language
Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era.[9] While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists[who?] believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications.[44] English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee.
English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%).[45] Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%).[46] Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers.[citation needed]
Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences.[9] In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries.
[edit]
Dialects and regional varieties
Main article: List of dialects of the English language
The expansion of the British Empire and—since World War II—the influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe.[9] Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins.
Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the world—one based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's Académie française; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed.
Scots developed—largely independently[citation needed]—from the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English.
Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out.[47]
Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words.
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Constructed varieties of English
Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners.
E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be.
English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language.
Manually Coded English – a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English.
Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel.
Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words.
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Phonology
Main article: English phonology
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Vowels
See also: IPA chart for English dialects This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
It is the vowels that differ most from region to region.
Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation.IPA Description word
monophthongs
i/iː Close front unrounded vowel bead
ɪ Near-close near-front unrounded vowel bid
ɛ Open-mid front unrounded vowel bed
æ Near-open front unrounded vowel bad
ɒ Open back rounded vowel box[vn 1]
ɔ/ɑ Open-mid back rounded vowel pawed[vn 2]
ɑ/ɑː Open back unrounded vowel bra
ʊ Near-close near-back vowel good
u/uː Close back rounded vowel booed[vn 3]
ʌ/ɐ/ɘ Open-mid back unrounded vowel, near-open central vowel bud
ɝ/ɜː Open-mid central unrounded vowel bird[vn 4]
ə Schwa Rosa's[vn 5]
ɨ Close central unrounded vowel roses[vn 5][vn 6]
diphthongs
e(ɪ)/eɪ Close-mid front unrounded vowel
Close front unrounded vowel bayed[vn 7]
o(ʊ)/əʊ Close-mid back rounded vowel
Near-close near-back vowel bode[vn 7]
aɪ Open front unrounded vowel
Near-close near-front unrounded vowel cry[vn 8]
aʊ Open front unrounded vowel
Near-close near-back vowel bough
ɔɪ Open-mid back rounded vowel
Close front unrounded vowel boy
ʊɚ/ʊə Near-close near-back vowel
Schwa boor[vn 9]
ɛɚ/ɛə/eɚ Open-mid front unrounded vowel
Schwa fair[vn 10]
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Notes
^ American English lacks this sound; words with this sound are pronounced with /ɑ/ or /ɔ/. See Lot-cloth split.
^ Some dialects of North American English do not have this vowel. See Cot-caught merger.
^ The letter can represent either /u/ or the iotated vowel /ju/. In BRP, if this iotated vowel /ju/ occurs after /t/, /d/, /s/ or /z/, it often triggers palatalization of the preceding consonant, turning it to /ʨ/, /ʥ/, /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ respectively, as in tune, during, sugar, and azure. In American English, palatalization does not generally happen unless the /ju/ is followed by r, with the result that /(t, d,s, z)jur/ turn to /tʃɚ/, /dʒɚ/, /ʃɚ/ and /ʒɚ/ respectively, as in nature, verdure, sure, and treasure.
^ The North American variation of this sound is a rhotic vowel.
^ a b Many speakers of North American English do not distinguish between these two unstressed vowels. For them, roses and Rosa's are pronounced the same, and the symbol usually used is schwa /ə/.
^ This sound is often transcribed with /i/ or with /ɪ/.
^ a b The diphthongs /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ are monophthongal for many General American speakers, as /eː/ and /oː/.
^ Vowel length plays a phonetic role in the majority of English dialects, and is said to be phonemic in a few dialects, such as Australian English and New Zealand English. In certain dialects of the modern English language, for instance General American, there is allophonic vowel length: vowel phonemes are realized as long vowel allophones before voiced consonant phonemes in the coda of a syllable. Before the Great Vowel Shift, vowel length was phonemically contrastive.
^ This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In some accents, this sound may be /ɔː/ instead of /ʊə/. See English-language vowel changes before historic r.
^ This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In some accents, the schwa offglide of /ɛə/ may be dropped, monophthising and lengthening the sound to /ɛː/.
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Consonants
This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Bilabial Labio-
dental Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar Palatal Velar Labial-
velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ[cn 1]
Plosive p b t d k ɡ
Affricate tʃ dʒ[cn 2]
Fricative f v θ ð[cn 3] s z ʃ ʒ[cn 2] ç[cn 4] x[cn 5] h
Flap ɾ[cn 6]
Approximant ɹ[cn 2] j ʍ w[cn 7]
Lateral l
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Notes
^ The velar nasal [ŋ] is a non-phonemic allophone of /n/ in some northerly British accents, appearing only before /k/ and /g/. In all other dialects it is a separate phoneme, although it only occurs in syllable codas.
^ a b c The sounds /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /ɹ/ are labialised in some dialects. Labialisation is never contrastive in initial position and therefore is sometimes not transcribed. Most speakers of General American realize (always rhoticized) as the retroflex approximant /ɻ/, whereas the same is realized in Scottish English, etc. as the alveolar trill.
^ In some dialects, such as Cockney, the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ are usually merged with /f/ and /v/, and in others, like African American Vernacular English, /ð/ is merged with dental /d/. In some Irish varieties, /θ/ and /ð/ become the corresponding dental plosives, which then contrast with the usual alveolar plosives.
^ The voiceless palatal fricative /ç/ is in most accents just an allophone of /h/ before /j/; for instance human /çjuːmən/. However, in some accents (see this), the /j/ is dropped, but the initial consonant is the same.
^ The voiceless velar fricative /x/ is used by Scottish or Welsh speakers of English for Scots/Gaelic words such as loch /lɒx/ or by some speakers for loanwords from German and Hebrew like Bach /bax/ or Chanukah /xanuka/. /x/ is also used in South African English. In some dialects such as Scouse (Liverpool) either [x] or the affricate [kx] may be used as an allophone of /k/ in words such as docker [dɒkxə]. Most native speakers have a great deal of trouble pronouncing it correctly when learning a foreign language. Most speakers use the sounds [k] and [h] instead.
^ The alveolar tap [ɾ] is an allophone of /t/ and /d/ in unstressed syllables in North American English and Australian English.[48] This is the sound of tt or dd in the words latter and ladder, which are homophones for many speakers of North American English. In some accents such as Scottish English and Indian English it replaces /ɹ/. This is the same sound represented by single r in most varieties of Spanish.
^ Voiceless w [ʍ] is found in Scottish and Irish English, as well as in some varieties of American, New Zealand, and English English. In most other dialects it is merged with /w/, in some dialects of Scots it is merged with /f/.
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Voicing and aspiration
Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given:
Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ p/, / t/, / k/, and / tʃ/) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable – compare pin [pʰɪn] and spin [spɪn], crap [kʰɹ̥æp] and scrap [skɹæp].
In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well.
In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated.
Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects.
Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [tʰæp̚], sack [sæk̚].
Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) – examples: sad [sæd̥], bag [bæɡ̊]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position.
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Supra-segmental features
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Tone groups
English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question.
In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example:
- /duː juː niːd ˈɛnɪˌθɪŋ/ Do you need anything?
- /aɪ dəʊnt | nəʊ/ I don't, no
- /aɪ dəʊnt nəʊ/ I don't know (contracted to, for example, - /aɪ dəʊnəʊ/ or /aɪ dənəʊ/ I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further)
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Characteristics of intonation
English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed.
Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example:
That | was | the | best | thing | you | could | have | done!
Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable.
The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example:
John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.)
John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.)
John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.)
John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.)
John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.)
Also
I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her)
I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will)
I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc)
I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else)
I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else)
This can also be used to express emotion:
Oh, really? (...I did not know that)
Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious)
The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positive–negative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example:
When do you want to be paid?
Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?")
Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.")
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Grammar
Main article: English grammar
English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular.
At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect.
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Vocabulary
The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries.[49] Look up Appendix:List of Proto-Indo-European roots in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matṛ"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignōmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know).
Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language.
An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English.
An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes.[citation needed]
Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article.[citation needed] However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate.
English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, über, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage.
See also: sociolinguistics.
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Number of words in English
The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states:“ The Vocabulary of a widely diffused and highly cultivated living language is not a fixed quantity circumscribed by definite limits... there is absolutely no defining line in any direction: the circle of the English language has a well-defined centre but no discernible circumference. ”
The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English".
The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy:“ It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang (Supplement to the OED, 1933).[50] ”
The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year.[51]
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Word origins
Main article: Lists of English words of international origin
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 West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages).
83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic.[52] Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic.
Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists.
A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973)[53] that estimated the origin of English words as follows:
Influences in English vocabulary
Langue d'oïl, including French and Old Norman: 28.3%
Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24%
Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25%
Greek: 5.32%
No etymology given: 4.03%
Derived from proper names: 3.28%
All other languages contributed less than 1%
A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics:[54]
French (langue d'oïl): 41%
"Native" English: 33%
Latin: 15%
Old Norse: 2%
Dutch: 1%
Other: 10%
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Dutch origins
Main article: List of English words of Dutch origin
Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin).
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French origins
Main article: List of French words and phrases used by English speakers
A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oïl origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French.
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Writing system
Main articles: English alphabet and English orthography
Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken.
Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable.[55] Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic.[56]
In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging.[57] It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish.[58]
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Basic sound-letter correspondence
See also: Hard and soft C and Hard and soft G
Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way:IPA Alphabetic representation Dialect-specific
p p
b b
t t, th (rarely) thyme, Thames th thing (African American, New York)
d d th that (African American, New York)
k c (+ a, o, u, consonants), k, ck, ch, qu (rarely) conquer, kh (in foreign words)
g g, gh, gu (+ a, e, i), gue (final position)
m m
n n
ŋ n (before g or k), ng
f f, ph, gh (final, infrequent) laugh, rough th thing (many forms of English language in England)
v v th with (Cockney, Estuary English)
θ th thick, think, through
ð th that, this, the
s s, c (+ e, i, y), sc (+ e, i, y), ç (façade)
z z, s (finally or occasionally medially), ss (rarely) possess, dessert, word-initial x xylophone
ʃ sh, sch, ti (before vowel) portion, ci/ce (before vowel) suspicion, ocean; si/ssi (before vowel) tension, mission; ch (esp. in words of French origin); rarely s/ss before u sugar, issue; chsi in fuchsia only
ʒ medial si (before vowel) division, medial s (before "ur") pleasure, zh (in foreign words), z before u azure, g (in words of French origin) (+e, i, y) genre
x kh, ch, h (in foreign words) occasionally ch loch (Scottish English, Welsh English)
h h (syllable-initially, otherwise silent)
tʃ ch, tch, t before u future, culture t (+ u, ue, eu) tune, Tuesday, Teutonic (several dialects - see Phonological history of English consonant clusters)
dʒ j, g (+ e, i, y), dg (+ e, i, consonant) badge, judg(e)ment d (+ u, ue, ew) dune, due, dew (several dialects - another example of yod coalescence)
ɹ r, wr (initial) wrangle
j y (initially or surrounded by vowels)
l l
w w
ʍ wh (pronounced hw) Scottish and Irish English, as well as some varieties of American, New Zealand, and English English
[edit]
Written accents
Main article: English words with diacritics
Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in café), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naïve, Zoë). Words such as décor, café, résumé/resumé, entrée, fiancée and naïve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries.
Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animé, exposé, lamé, öre, øre, pâté, piqué, and rosé, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, résumé/resumé is often spelt resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as maté, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage.
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Formal written English
Main article: Formal written English
A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English.
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Basic and simplified versions
To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time.
Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users.
The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace.[citation needed] Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses.
Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised[who?] subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear".
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See also
Changes to Old English vocabulary
English for Academic Purposes
English language learning and teaching
Language Report
Teaching English as a foreign language
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Notes
^ "English, a. and n." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 6 September 2007 http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50075365
^ see: Ethnologue (1984 estimate); The Triumph of English, The Economist, Dec. 20, 2001; Ethnologue (1999 estimate); "20,000 Teaching Jobs" (in English). Oxford Seminars. Retrieved on 2007-02-18.;
^ a b "Lecture 7: World-Wide English". EHistLing. Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
^ Ethnologue (1999 estimate);
^ Ethnologue, 1999
^ a b Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages
^ http://www.bartleby.com/224/1501.html
^ "Global English: gift or curse?". Retrieved on 2005-04-04.
^ a b c d e David Graddol (1997). "The Future of English?" (PDF). The British Council. Retrieved on 2007-04-15.
^ "The triumph of English". The Economist. 2001-12-20. Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
^ "Lecture 7: World-Wide English". EHistLing. Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
^ Crystal, David (2002). Langauge Death. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.2277/0521012716. ISBN 0521012716.
^ Cheshire, Jenny (1991). English Around The World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.2277/0521395658. ISBN 0521395658.
^ Anglik English language resource
^ [1]
^ Linguistics research center Texas University
^ The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University
^ English Language Expert
^ History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English"
^ Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192.
^ Ethnologue, 1999
^ CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World).
^ Mair, Victor H. (1991). "What Is a Chinese "Dialect/Topolect"? Reflections on Some Key Sino-English Linguistic Terms" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers.
^ "English language". Columbia University Press. 2005. Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
^ 20,000 Teaching
^ Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007.
^ "U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2003, Section 1 Population" (in English) (pdf). U.S. Census Bureau. 59 pages. Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home.
^ a b The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995 (2003-08-03).]
^ Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories–20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada.
^ Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home.
^ Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa.
^ Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer.
^ Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004.
^ Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377–390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]).
^ Census of India's Indian Census, Issue 10, 2003, pp 8-10, (Feature: Languages of West Bengal in Census and Surveys, Bilingualism and Trilingualism).
^ Tropf, Herbert S. 2004. India and its Languages. Siemens AG, Munich
^ For the distinction between "English Speakers" and "English Users", see: TESOL-India (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), India: World's Second Largest English-Speaking Country. Their article explains the difference between the 350 million number mentioned in a previous version of this Wikipedia article and a more plausible 90 million number: “ Wikipedia's India estimate of 350 million includes two categories - "English Speakers" and "English Users". The distinction between the Speakers and Users is that Users only know how to read English words while Speakers know how to read English, understand spoken English as well as form their own sentences to converse in English. The distinction becomes clear when you consider the China numbers. China has over 200~350 million users that can read English words but, as anyone can see on the streets of China, only handful of million who are English speakers. ”
^ Australian Bureau of Statistics
^ Nancy Morris (1995), Puerto Rico: Culture, Politics, and Identity, Praeger/Greenwood, pp. 62, ISBN 0275952282
^ Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006.
^ U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research – United Kingdom.
^ U.S. ENGLISH, Inc.
^ Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center
^ International Maritime Organization
^ The Official EU languages
^ European Union
^ Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002
^ Cox, Felicity (2006). "Australian English Pronunciation into the 21st century" (PDF). Prospect 21: 3–21. Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
^ For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion Schöner)
^ It went on to clarify, “ Hence we exclude all words that had become obsolete by 1150 [the end of the Old English era] . . . Dialectal words and forms which occur since 1500 are not admitted, except when they continue the history of the word or sense once in general use, illustrate the history of a word, or have themselves a certain literary currency. ”
^ Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw
^ Old English Online
^ Finkenstaedt, Thomas; Dieter Wolff (1973). Ordered profusion; studies in dictionaries and the English lexicon. C. Winter. ISBN 3-533-02253-6.
^ Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com
^ Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245.
^ Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company.
^ Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169
^ Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29.
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References
Baugh, Albert C.; Thomas Cable (2002). A history of the English language (5th ed.). Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28099-0.
Bragg, Melvyn (2004). The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language. Arcade Publishing. ISBN 1-55970-710-0.
Crystal, David (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53032-6.
Crystal, David (2003). The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53033-4.
Crystal, David (2004). The Stories of English. Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9752-4.
Halliday, MAK (1994). An introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold. ISBN 0-340-55782-6.
Hayford, Harrison; Howard P. Vincent (1954). Reader and Writer. Houghton Mifflin Company. [2]
Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953.
McArthur, T. (ed.) (1992). The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-214183-X.
Plotkin, Vulf (2006). The Language System of English. BrownWalker Press. ISBN 1-58112-993-9.
Robinson, Orrin (1992). Old English and Its Closest Relatives. Stanford Univ. Press. ISBN 0-8047-2221-8.
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External links Wikiversity has learning materials about Topic:English Language
English language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wikimedia Commons has media related to: English language
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: English language
6000 English words recorded by a native speaker
Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online
English language at Ethnologue
More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker
National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition
The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English
[edit]
Dictionaries English language edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus
Collection of English bilingual dictionaries
dict.org
Dictionary of American Regional English
English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary
Oxford's online dictionary
Merriam-Webster's online dictionary
Macquarie Dictionary Online
Historically, English originated from several dialects (now called Old English) which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek.Contents [hide]
1 Significance
2 History
3 Classification and related languages
4 Geographical distribution
4.1 Countries in order of total speakers
4.2 English as a global language
4.3 Dialects and regional varieties
4.4 Constructed varieties of English
5 Phonology
5.1 Vowels
5.1.1 Notes
5.2 Consonants
5.2.1 Notes
5.2.2 Voicing and aspiration
5.3 Supra-segmental features
5.3.1 Tone groups
5.3.2 Characteristics of intonation
6 Grammar
7 Vocabulary
7.1 Number of words in English
7.2 Word origins
7.2.1 Dutch origins
7.2.2 French origins
8 Writing system
8.1 Basic sound-letter correspondence
8.2 Written accents
9 Formal written English
10 Basic and simplified versions
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
14 External links
14.1 Dictionaries
[edit]
Significance
Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca,[8][9] is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy.[10] Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global.[11] It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet.[9]
A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations.
Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition.[12] Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time.[13]
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History
Main article: History of the English language
English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the Northern Netherlands[citation needed] in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles,[14] who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain,[15] leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe.
The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland,[16][17] Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language.[18] Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English.[19]
Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain[citation needed]. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication).
Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary.
The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world.
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Classification and related languages
The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology.[citation needed]
Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Änderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon).[citation needed]
Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum).
Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup d’état) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress.[citation needed] Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be").[citation needed]
[edit]
Geographical distribution
See also: List of countries by English-speaking population[show]
v • d • e
The English-speaking world
Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world
Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language.[20] English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.[21][22] However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)".[6][23] Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined.[24][25] There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.[26]
The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million),[27] United Kingdom (61 million),[28] Canada (18.2 million),[29] Australia (15.5 million),[30] Ireland (3.8 million),[28] South Africa (3.7 million),[31] and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million).[32] Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world.[33] Following India is the People's Republic of China.[34]
[edit]
Countries in order of total speakersRank Country Total Percent of population First language As an additional language Comment
1 United States 251,388,301 83% 215,423,557 35,964,744 Source: US Census 2006: Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2006, Table 1. Figure for second language speakers are respondents who reported they do not speak English at home but know it "very well" or "well". Note: figures are for population age 5 and older
2 India 90,000,000 8% 178,598 65,000,000 second language speakers.
25,000,000 third language speakers Figures include both those who speak English as a second language and those who speak it as a third language. 1991 figures.[35][36] The figures include English speakers, but not English users.[37]
3 Nigeria 79,000,000 53% 4,000,000 >75,000,000 Figures are for speakers of Nigerian Pidgin, an English-based pidgin or creole. Ihemere gives a range of roughly 3 to 5 million native speakers; the midpoint of the range is used in the table. Ihemere, Kelechukwu Uchechukwu. 2006. "A Basic Description and Analytic Treatment of Noun Clauses in Nigerian Pidgin." Nordic Journal of African Studies 15(3): 296–313.
4 United Kingdom 59,600,000 98% 58,100,000 1,500,000 Source: Crystal (2005), p. 109.
5 Philippines 45,900,000 52% 27,000 42,500,000 Total speakers: Census 2000, text above Figure 7. 63.71% of the 66.7 million people aged 5 years or more could speak English. Native speakers: Census 1995, as quoted by Andrew Gonzalez in The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 19 (5&6), 487-525. (1998)
6 Canada 25,246,220 76% 17,694,830 7,551,390 Source: 2001 Census - Knowledge of Official Languages and Mother Tongue. The native speakers figure comprises 122,660 people with both French and English as a mother tongue, plus 17,572,170 people with English and not French as a mother tongue.
7 Australia 18,172,989 92% 15,581,329 2,591,660 Source: 2006 Census.[38] The figure shown in the first language English speakers column is actually the number of Australian residents who speak only English at home. The additional language column shows the number of other residents who claim to speak English "well" or "very well". Another 5% of residents did not state their home language or English proficiency.
Note: Total = First language + Other language; Percentage = Total / Population (not given)
English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States.
In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico)[39], former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles.
English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom.[40][41] Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments.[42] English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate.[43]
[edit]
English as a global language
See also: English in computing, International English, and World language
Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era.[9] While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists[who?] believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications.[44] English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee.
English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%).[45] Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%).[46] Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers.[citation needed]
Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences.[9] In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries.
[edit]
Dialects and regional varieties
Main article: List of dialects of the English language
The expansion of the British Empire and—since World War II—the influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe.[9] Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins.
Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the world—one based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's Académie française; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed.
Scots developed—largely independently[citation needed]—from the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English.
Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out.[47]
Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words.
[edit]
Constructed varieties of English
Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners.
E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be.
English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language.
Manually Coded English – a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English.
Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel.
Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words.
[edit]
Phonology
Main article: English phonology
[edit]
Vowels
See also: IPA chart for English dialects This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
It is the vowels that differ most from region to region.
Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation.IPA Description word
monophthongs
i/iː Close front unrounded vowel bead
ɪ Near-close near-front unrounded vowel bid
ɛ Open-mid front unrounded vowel bed
æ Near-open front unrounded vowel bad
ɒ Open back rounded vowel box[vn 1]
ɔ/ɑ Open-mid back rounded vowel pawed[vn 2]
ɑ/ɑː Open back unrounded vowel bra
ʊ Near-close near-back vowel good
u/uː Close back rounded vowel booed[vn 3]
ʌ/ɐ/ɘ Open-mid back unrounded vowel, near-open central vowel bud
ɝ/ɜː Open-mid central unrounded vowel bird[vn 4]
ə Schwa Rosa's[vn 5]
ɨ Close central unrounded vowel roses[vn 5][vn 6]
diphthongs
e(ɪ)/eɪ Close-mid front unrounded vowel
Close front unrounded vowel bayed[vn 7]
o(ʊ)/əʊ Close-mid back rounded vowel
Near-close near-back vowel bode[vn 7]
aɪ Open front unrounded vowel
Near-close near-front unrounded vowel cry[vn 8]
aʊ Open front unrounded vowel
Near-close near-back vowel bough
ɔɪ Open-mid back rounded vowel
Close front unrounded vowel boy
ʊɚ/ʊə Near-close near-back vowel
Schwa boor[vn 9]
ɛɚ/ɛə/eɚ Open-mid front unrounded vowel
Schwa fair[vn 10]
[edit]
Notes
^ American English lacks this sound; words with this sound are pronounced with /ɑ/ or /ɔ/. See Lot-cloth split.
^ Some dialects of North American English do not have this vowel. See Cot-caught merger.
^ The letter can represent either /u/ or the iotated vowel /ju/. In BRP, if this iotated vowel /ju/ occurs after /t/, /d/, /s/ or /z/, it often triggers palatalization of the preceding consonant, turning it to /ʨ/, /ʥ/, /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ respectively, as in tune, during, sugar, and azure. In American English, palatalization does not generally happen unless the /ju/ is followed by r, with the result that /(t, d,s, z)jur/ turn to /tʃɚ/, /dʒɚ/, /ʃɚ/ and /ʒɚ/ respectively, as in nature, verdure, sure, and treasure.
^ The North American variation of this sound is a rhotic vowel.
^ a b Many speakers of North American English do not distinguish between these two unstressed vowels. For them, roses and Rosa's are pronounced the same, and the symbol usually used is schwa /ə/.
^ This sound is often transcribed with /i/ or with /ɪ/.
^ a b The diphthongs /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ are monophthongal for many General American speakers, as /eː/ and /oː/.
^ Vowel length plays a phonetic role in the majority of English dialects, and is said to be phonemic in a few dialects, such as Australian English and New Zealand English. In certain dialects of the modern English language, for instance General American, there is allophonic vowel length: vowel phonemes are realized as long vowel allophones before voiced consonant phonemes in the coda of a syllable. Before the Great Vowel Shift, vowel length was phonemically contrastive.
^ This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In some accents, this sound may be /ɔː/ instead of /ʊə/. See English-language vowel changes before historic r.
^ This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In some accents, the schwa offglide of /ɛə/ may be dropped, monophthising and lengthening the sound to /ɛː/.
[edit]
Consonants
This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Bilabial Labio-
dental Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar Palatal Velar Labial-
velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ[cn 1]
Plosive p b t d k ɡ
Affricate tʃ dʒ[cn 2]
Fricative f v θ ð[cn 3] s z ʃ ʒ[cn 2] ç[cn 4] x[cn 5] h
Flap ɾ[cn 6]
Approximant ɹ[cn 2] j ʍ w[cn 7]
Lateral l
[edit]
Notes
^ The velar nasal [ŋ] is a non-phonemic allophone of /n/ in some northerly British accents, appearing only before /k/ and /g/. In all other dialects it is a separate phoneme, although it only occurs in syllable codas.
^ a b c The sounds /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /ɹ/ are labialised in some dialects. Labialisation is never contrastive in initial position and therefore is sometimes not transcribed. Most speakers of General American realize
^ In some dialects, such as Cockney, the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ are usually merged with /f/ and /v/, and in others, like African American Vernacular English, /ð/ is merged with dental /d/. In some Irish varieties, /θ/ and /ð/ become the corresponding dental plosives, which then contrast with the usual alveolar plosives.
^ The voiceless palatal fricative /ç/ is in most accents just an allophone of /h/ before /j/; for instance human /çjuːmən/. However, in some accents (see this), the /j/ is dropped, but the initial consonant is the same.
^ The voiceless velar fricative /x/ is used by Scottish or Welsh speakers of English for Scots/Gaelic words such as loch /lɒx/ or by some speakers for loanwords from German and Hebrew like Bach /bax/ or Chanukah /xanuka/. /x/ is also used in South African English. In some dialects such as Scouse (Liverpool) either [x] or the affricate [kx] may be used as an allophone of /k/ in words such as docker [dɒkxə]. Most native speakers have a great deal of trouble pronouncing it correctly when learning a foreign language. Most speakers use the sounds [k] and [h] instead.
^ The alveolar tap [ɾ] is an allophone of /t/ and /d/ in unstressed syllables in North American English and Australian English.[48] This is the sound of tt or dd in the words latter and ladder, which are homophones for many speakers of North American English. In some accents such as Scottish English and Indian English it replaces /ɹ/. This is the same sound represented by single r in most varieties of Spanish.
^ Voiceless w [ʍ] is found in Scottish and Irish English, as well as in some varieties of American, New Zealand, and English English. In most other dialects it is merged with /w/, in some dialects of Scots it is merged with /f/.
[edit]
Voicing and aspiration
Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given:
Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ p/, / t/, / k/, and / tʃ/) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable – compare pin [pʰɪn] and spin [spɪn], crap [kʰɹ̥æp] and scrap [skɹæp].
In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well.
In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated.
Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects.
Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [tʰæp̚], sack [sæk̚].
Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) – examples: sad [sæd̥], bag [bæɡ̊]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position.
[edit]
Supra-segmental features
[edit]
Tone groups
English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question.
In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example:
- /duː juː niːd ˈɛnɪˌθɪŋ/ Do you need anything?
- /aɪ dəʊnt | nəʊ/ I don't, no
- /aɪ dəʊnt nəʊ/ I don't know (contracted to, for example, - /aɪ dəʊnəʊ/ or /aɪ dənəʊ/ I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further)
[edit]
Characteristics of intonation
English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed.
Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example:
That | was | the | best | thing | you | could | have | done!
Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable.
The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example:
John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.)
John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.)
John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.)
John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.)
John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.)
Also
I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her)
I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will)
I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc)
I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else)
I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else)
This can also be used to express emotion:
Oh, really? (...I did not know that)
Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious)
The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positive–negative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example:
When do you want to be paid?
Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?")
Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.")
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Grammar
Main article: English grammar
English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular.
At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect.
[edit]
Vocabulary
The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries.[49] Look up Appendix:List of Proto-Indo-European roots in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matṛ"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignōmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know).
Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language.
An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English.
An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes.[citation needed]
Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article.[citation needed] However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate.
English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, über, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage.
See also: sociolinguistics.
[edit]
Number of words in English
The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states:“ The Vocabulary of a widely diffused and highly cultivated living language is not a fixed quantity circumscribed by definite limits... there is absolutely no defining line in any direction: the circle of the English language has a well-defined centre but no discernible circumference. ”
The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English".
The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy:“ It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang (Supplement to the OED, 1933).[50] ”
The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year.[51]
[edit]
Word origins
Main article: Lists of English words of international origin
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 West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages).
83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic.[52] Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic.
Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists.
A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973)[53] that estimated the origin of English words as follows:
Influences in English vocabulary
Langue d'oïl, including French and Old Norman: 28.3%
Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24%
Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25%
Greek: 5.32%
No etymology given: 4.03%
Derived from proper names: 3.28%
All other languages contributed less than 1%
A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics:[54]
French (langue d'oïl): 41%
"Native" English: 33%
Latin: 15%
Old Norse: 2%
Dutch: 1%
Other: 10%
[edit]
Dutch origins
Main article: List of English words of Dutch origin
Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin).
[edit]
French origins
Main article: List of French words and phrases used by English speakers
A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oïl origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French.
[edit]
Writing system
Main articles: English alphabet and English orthography
Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken.
Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable.[55] Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic.[56]
In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging.[57] It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish.[58]
[edit]
Basic sound-letter correspondence
See also: Hard and soft C and Hard and soft G
Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way:IPA Alphabetic representation Dialect-specific
p p
b b
t t, th (rarely) thyme, Thames th thing (African American, New York)
d d th that (African American, New York)
k c (+ a, o, u, consonants), k, ck, ch, qu (rarely) conquer, kh (in foreign words)
g g, gh, gu (+ a, e, i), gue (final position)
m m
n n
ŋ n (before g or k), ng
f f, ph, gh (final, infrequent) laugh, rough th thing (many forms of English language in England)
v v th with (Cockney, Estuary English)
θ th thick, think, through
ð th that, this, the
s s, c (+ e, i, y), sc (+ e, i, y), ç (façade)
z z, s (finally or occasionally medially), ss (rarely) possess, dessert, word-initial x xylophone
ʃ sh, sch, ti (before vowel) portion, ci/ce (before vowel) suspicion, ocean; si/ssi (before vowel) tension, mission; ch (esp. in words of French origin); rarely s/ss before u sugar, issue; chsi in fuchsia only
ʒ medial si (before vowel) division, medial s (before "ur") pleasure, zh (in foreign words), z before u azure, g (in words of French origin) (+e, i, y) genre
x kh, ch, h (in foreign words) occasionally ch loch (Scottish English, Welsh English)
h h (syllable-initially, otherwise silent)
tʃ ch, tch, t before u future, culture t (+ u, ue, eu) tune, Tuesday, Teutonic (several dialects - see Phonological history of English consonant clusters)
dʒ j, g (+ e, i, y), dg (+ e, i, consonant) badge, judg(e)ment d (+ u, ue, ew) dune, due, dew (several dialects - another example of yod coalescence)
ɹ r, wr (initial) wrangle
j y (initially or surrounded by vowels)
l l
w w
ʍ wh (pronounced hw) Scottish and Irish English, as well as some varieties of American, New Zealand, and English English
[edit]
Written accents
Main article: English words with diacritics
Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in café), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naïve, Zoë). Words such as décor, café, résumé/resumé, entrée, fiancée and naïve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries.
Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animé, exposé, lamé, öre, øre, pâté, piqué, and rosé, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, résumé/resumé is often spelt resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as maté, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage.
[edit]
Formal written English
Main article: Formal written English
A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English.
[edit]
Basic and simplified versions
To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time.
Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users.
The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace.[citation needed] Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses.
Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised[who?] subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear".
[edit]
See also
Changes to Old English vocabulary
English for Academic Purposes
English language learning and teaching
Language Report
Teaching English as a foreign language
[edit]
Notes
^ "English, a. and n." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 6 September 2007 http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50075365
^ see: Ethnologue (1984 estimate); The Triumph of English, The Economist, Dec. 20, 2001; Ethnologue (1999 estimate); "20,000 Teaching Jobs" (in English). Oxford Seminars. Retrieved on 2007-02-18.;
^ a b "Lecture 7: World-Wide English". EHistLing. Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
^ Ethnologue (1999 estimate);
^ Ethnologue, 1999
^ a b Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages
^ http://www.bartleby.com/224/1501.html
^ "Global English: gift or curse?". Retrieved on 2005-04-04.
^ a b c d e David Graddol (1997). "The Future of English?" (PDF). The British Council. Retrieved on 2007-04-15.
^ "The triumph of English". The Economist. 2001-12-20. Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
^ "Lecture 7: World-Wide English". EHistLing. Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
^ Crystal, David (2002). Langauge Death. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.2277/0521012716. ISBN 0521012716.
^ Cheshire, Jenny (1991). English Around The World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.2277/0521395658. ISBN 0521395658.
^ Anglik English language resource
^ [1]
^ Linguistics research center Texas University
^ The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University
^ English Language Expert
^ History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English"
^ Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192.
^ Ethnologue, 1999
^ CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World).
^ Mair, Victor H. (1991). "What Is a Chinese "Dialect/Topolect"? Reflections on Some Key Sino-English Linguistic Terms" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers.
^ "English language". Columbia University Press. 2005. Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
^ 20,000 Teaching
^ Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007.
^ "U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2003, Section 1 Population" (in English) (pdf). U.S. Census Bureau. 59 pages. Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home.
^ a b The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995 (2003-08-03).]
^ Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories–20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada.
^ Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home.
^ Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa.
^ Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer.
^ Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004.
^ Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377–390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]).
^ Census of India's Indian Census, Issue 10, 2003, pp 8-10, (Feature: Languages of West Bengal in Census and Surveys, Bilingualism and Trilingualism).
^ Tropf, Herbert S. 2004. India and its Languages. Siemens AG, Munich
^ For the distinction between "English Speakers" and "English Users", see: TESOL-India (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), India: World's Second Largest English-Speaking Country. Their article explains the difference between the 350 million number mentioned in a previous version of this Wikipedia article and a more plausible 90 million number: “ Wikipedia's India estimate of 350 million includes two categories - "English Speakers" and "English Users". The distinction between the Speakers and Users is that Users only know how to read English words while Speakers know how to read English, understand spoken English as well as form their own sentences to converse in English. The distinction becomes clear when you consider the China numbers. China has over 200~350 million users that can read English words but, as anyone can see on the streets of China, only handful of million who are English speakers. ”
^ Australian Bureau of Statistics
^ Nancy Morris (1995), Puerto Rico: Culture, Politics, and Identity, Praeger/Greenwood, pp. 62, ISBN 0275952282
^ Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006.
^ U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research – United Kingdom.
^ U.S. ENGLISH, Inc.
^ Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center
^ International Maritime Organization
^ The Official EU languages
^ European Union
^ Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002
^ Cox, Felicity (2006). "Australian English Pronunciation into the 21st century" (PDF). Prospect 21: 3–21. Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
^ For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion Schöner)
^ It went on to clarify, “ Hence we exclude all words that had become obsolete by 1150 [the end of the Old English era] . . . Dialectal words and forms which occur since 1500 are not admitted, except when they continue the history of the word or sense once in general use, illustrate the history of a word, or have themselves a certain literary currency. ”
^ Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw
^ Old English Online
^ Finkenstaedt, Thomas; Dieter Wolff (1973). Ordered profusion; studies in dictionaries and the English lexicon. C. Winter. ISBN 3-533-02253-6.
^ Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com
^ Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245.
^ Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company.
^ Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169
^ Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29.
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References
Baugh, Albert C.; Thomas Cable (2002). A history of the English language (5th ed.). Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28099-0.
Bragg, Melvyn (2004). The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language. Arcade Publishing. ISBN 1-55970-710-0.
Crystal, David (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53032-6.
Crystal, David (2003). The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53033-4.
Crystal, David (2004). The Stories of English. Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9752-4.
Halliday, MAK (1994). An introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold. ISBN 0-340-55782-6.
Hayford, Harrison; Howard P. Vincent (1954). Reader and Writer. Houghton Mifflin Company. [2]
Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953.
McArthur, T. (ed.) (1992). The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-214183-X.
Plotkin, Vulf (2006). The Language System of English. BrownWalker Press. ISBN 1-58112-993-9.
Robinson, Orrin (1992). Old English and Its Closest Relatives. Stanford Univ. Press. ISBN 0-8047-2221-8.
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External links Wikiversity has learning materials about Topic:English Language
English language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wikimedia Commons has media related to: English language
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: English language
6000 English words recorded by a native speaker
Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online
English language at Ethnologue
More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker
National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition
The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English
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Dictionaries English language edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus
Collection of English bilingual dictionaries
dict.org
Dictionary of American Regional English
English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary
Oxford's online dictionary
Merriam-Webster's online dictionary
Macquarie Dictionary Online
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