Origins

English is an Indo-European language belonging to the family of Germanic languages. It derived from the so-called Anglo-Saxon. In the 5th Century, the Angles and Saxons, living in the area of West Germany, invaded England. Their dialects spread and interacted with the speech of the local Celts, thus forming the Anglo-Saxon language. English is an Anglo-Frisian language, similar to the dialects spoken in present-day Western Germany and Netherlands (the historical area of Frisia). It was strongly influenced by French – first during the domination of the Normans, and then by Latin in the Renaissance. The primary mixture of dialects, the influence of French and unique development as an island language resulted in a quite different linguistic system when compared to other Germanic languages.

Official Language

English is today the official language of 53 countries, including the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It’s the official language of the UN, the EU, the Olympic Committee, and aerial and maritime transport organizations all over the world. The contemporary status of English as a global language has a historical and linguistic explanation. Due first to the British Empire and its post-colonial impact, the language spread over huge territories. After World War II, the economic and political influence of the USA immensely accelerated the process. Some linguists also base the impressive popularity of English on specific phonetic and grammatical features that make English easier to learn than various other languages (easy pronunciation, almost total submission of gender, verb personal flexion, etc). Combining native and second-language speakers, English is spoken by about one billion people in the world.

Varieties

Due to its extremely wide distribution, it’s quite difficult to determine the dialects and varieties of English. Based on geographical distribution, English spoken in various countries developed in a specific way, thus forming a regional variety. Dialects formed within these national linguistic varieties – Cockney in Britain, the Newfoundland variety in Canadian, etc. Often, when English co-exists as a second official language, it interacts with the other local language to form a specific variety.