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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

English

Pronunciatio /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/[1]
n

Native to The English-speaking world, including

the United Kingdom, United
States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and Ne
w Zealand

Speakers L1: 380 million (2021)[2]

 L2: 1.077 billion (2021)[3]

 Total: 1.457 billion

Language Indo-European
family
 Germanic
  West Germanic

 North Sea
Germanic

 Anglo-
Frisian

 A
n
g
l
i
c


En

Early forms Proto-Indo-European

 Proto-Germanic

 Old English

 Middle English

 Early
Modern
English

Writing  Latin (English alphabet)

system
 Anglo-Saxon runes (historical)

 English Braille, Unified English

Braille

Signed forms Manually coded English (multiple

systems)

Official status

Official show
language in
57 countries

show
 31 non-sovereign entities

show

Working language

show

Various organisations

Language codes

ISO 639-1 en

ISO 639-2 eng

ISO 639-3 eng

Glottolog stan1293

Linguasphere 52-ABA

Countries and territories where English is the native

language of the majority

Countries and territories where English is an official or

administrative language but not a majority native
language

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without

proper rendering support, you may see question marks,
boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Part of a series on the

English language
Topics

 English-speaking world

 As a second language

 History

Advanced topics

 English as a lingua franca

 European language

 Modern English

 Loanwords

 Linguistic purism

Phonology

 Phonology (History)

Dialects

 American

 Anguillian

 Antarctic

 Antiguan and Barbudan

 Australian

 Bajan

 Bangladeshi

 Bay Islands

 Belizean

 Bermudian

 British

 Brunei

 Cameroonian

 Canadian
 Caribbean

 Cornish

 England

 Falkland Islands

 Fijian

 Gambian

 Ghanaian

 Gustavia

 Indian

 Irish

 Jamaican

 Kenyan

 Liberian

 Malawian

 Malaysian

 Manx

 Myanmar

 Namibian

 Nepali

 New Zealand

 Nigerian

 Pakistani

 Philippine

 San Andrés–Providencia

 Scottish

 Sierra Leone

 Singapore

 South African
  South Atlantic

 Sri Lankan

 Ugandan

 Welsh

 Zimbabwean

 see also: List of dialects of English

Teaching

 Teaching English as a second language

 v

 t

 e

English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, whose speakers,
called Anglophones, originated in early medieval England on the island of Great Britain.[4][5][6] The
namesake of the language is the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to Britain. It
is the most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the global influences of the former British
Empire (succeeded by the Commonwealth of Nations) and the United States.[7] English is the third-most
spoken native language, after Standard Chinese and Spanish;[8] it is also the most widely learned second
language in the world, with more second-language speakers than native speakers.

English is either the official language or one of the official languages in 59 sovereign states (such
as India, Ireland, and Canada). In some other countries, it is the sole or dominant language for historical
reasons without being explicitly defined by law (such as in the United States and United Kingdom).[9] It is
a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union, and many other international and
regional organisations. It has also become the de facto lingua franca of diplomacy, science, technology,
international trade, logistics, tourism, aviation, entertainment, and the Internet.[10] English accounts for
at least 70% of total speakers of the Germanic language branch, and as of 2021, Ethnologue estimated
that there were over 1.5 billion speakers worldwide.[3]

Old English emerged from a group of West Germanic dialects spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. Late Old
English borrowed some grammar and core vocabulary from Old Norse, a North Germanic language.[11][12]
[13]
Then, Middle English borrowed words extensively from French dialects, which make up
approximately 28% of Modern English vocabulary, and from Latin, which is the source for an additional
28%.[14] While the majority of English vocabulary derives from Romance languages, it is considered a
member of the Germanic language family per its historical origin; much of English's most basic
vocabulary remains identifiably Germanic, as well as aspects of its grammar and phonology. English
exists on a dialect continuum with Scots and is then most closely related to the Low Saxon and Frisian
languages.