English language
Un article de Vev.
Modèle:Sprotected2 Modèle:English language English is a West Germanic language originating in England, and the first language for most people in Australia, Canada, the Commonwealth Caribbean, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America (also commonly known as the Anglosphere). It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language throughout the world, especially in Commonwealth countries and in many international organisations.
Modern English is sometimes described as the global lingua franca.<ref> Global English: gift or curse?
. Retrieved on 2005-04-04.
</ref><ref name="Graddol"> David Graddol
(1997) . The Future of English? . The British Council
. Retrieved on 2007-04-15. </ref> English is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy.<ref name="triumph"> The triumph of English
. The Economist (20 December 2001)
. Retrieved on 2007-03-26. </ref> The influence of the British Empire is the primary reason for the initial spread of the language far beyond the British Isles.<ref> Lecture 7: World-Wide English
. EHistLing
. Retrieved on 2007-03-26. </ref> Since World War II, the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States has significantly accelerated the adoption of English.<ref name="Graddol"> David Graddol
(1997) . The Future of English? . The British Council
. Retrieved on 2007-04-15. </ref>
A working knowledge of English is required in certain fields, professions, and occupations. As a result, over a billion people speak English at least at a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). English is one of six official languages of the United Nations.
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History
English is an Anglo-Frisian language. Germanic-speaking peoples from northwest Germany (Saxons and Angles) and Jutland (Jutes) invaded what is now known as Eastern England around the fifth century AD. It is a matter of debate whether the Old English language spread by displacement of the original population, or the native Celts gradually adopted the language and culture of a new ruling class, or a combination of both of these processes (see Sub-Roman Britain).
Whatever their origin, these Germanic dialects eventually coalesced to a degree (there remained geographical variation) and formed what is today called Old English. Old English loosely resembles some coastal dialects in what are now northwest Germany and the Netherlands (i.e., Frisia). Throughout the history of written Old English, it retained a synthetic structure closer to that of Proto-Indo-European, largely adopting West Saxon scribal conventions, while spoken Old English became increasingly analytic in nature, losing the more complex noun case system, relying more heavily on prepositions and fixed word order to convey meaning. This is evident in the Middle English period, when literature was to an increasing extent recorded with spoken dialectal variation intact, after written Old English lost its status as the literary language of the nobility. It has been postulated that English retains some traits from a Celtic substratum.<ref> Venneman , Theo
. " English, a Germanic dialect? " . Retrieved on 2006-12-09 . </ref><ref>" What was spoken Old English like? " . Retrieved on 2006-12-09 . </ref> Later, it was influenced by the related North Germanic language Old Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the north and the east coast down to London, the area known as the Danelaw.
The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 profoundly influenced the evolution of the language. For about 300 years after this, the Normans used Anglo-Norman, which was close to Old French, as the language of the court, law and administration. By the fourteenth century, Anglo-Norman borrowings had contributed roughly 10,000 words to English, of which 75% remain in use. These include many words pertaining to the legal and administrative fields, but also include common words for food, such as mutton and beef.<ref> "mutton, n." The Oxford English Dictionary. Second ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 6 September 2007.</ref><ref>"beef, n." The Oxford English Dictionary. Second ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 6 September 2007 <http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50019353</ref> The Norman influence gave rise to what is now referred to as Middle English. Later, during the English Renaissance, many words were borrowed directly from Latin (giving rise to a number of doublets) and Greek, leaving a parallel vocabulary that persists into modern times. By the seventeenth century there was a reaction in some circles against so-called inkhorn terms.
During the fifteenth century, Middle English was transformed by the Great Vowel Shift, the spread of a prestigious South Eastern-based dialect in the court, administration and academic life, and the standardising effect of printing. Early Modern English can be traced back to around the Elizabethan period.
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 question as to which is the nearest living relative of English is a matter of discussion. Apart from such English-lexified creole languages such as Tok Pisin, Scots (spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland) is not a Gaelic language, but is part of the English family of languages: both Scots and modern English are descended from Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon.Modèle:Unclear It is Scots' indefinite status as a language or a dialect of English which complicates definitely calling it the closest language to English. The closest relatives to English after Scots are the Frisian languages, which are spoken in the Northern Netherlands and Northwest Germany. Other less closely related living West Germanic languages include German, Low Saxon, Dutch, and Afrikaans. The North Germanic languages of Scandinavia are less closely related to English than the West Germanic languages.
Many 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, in so-called "faux amis", or false friends.
Geographical distribution
Modèle:Seealso Modèle:English official language clickable map Over 309 million people speak English as their first language, as of 2005.<ref> Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.)
(2005) . Ethnologue report for language code:eng . Ethnologue
.</ref> English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.<ref name = "ethnologue">Ethnologue, 1999</ref><ref name = "CIA World Factbook">CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World).</ref> 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."<ref name = "Languages of the World">Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (199Image:Cool.gif, Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages</ref><ref name=Mair>Modèle:Cite journal</ref> Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined.<ref> English language
. Columbia University Press (2005)
. Retrieved on 2007-03-26. </ref><ref>20,000 Teaching </ref> There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.<ref>Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, March 7 edition, 2007.</ref>
The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million),<ref name="US speakers"> U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2003, Section 1 Population
(pdf)
(English)
59 pages
. U.S. Census Bureau
. 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.</ref> United Kingdom (58 million),<ref name="Crystal">The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995 (2003-08-03).]</ref> Canada (17.7 million),<ref name="Canada speakers">Mother Tongue, 2001 Counts for Both Sexes, for Canada, Provinces and Territories - 20% Sample Data, Census 2001, Statistics Canada.</ref> Australia (15 million),<ref name="Australia speakers">2001 Census QuickStats: Australia Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who spoke English only at home.</ref> Ireland (3.8 million),<ref name="Crystal" /> South Africa (3.7 million),<ref name="SA speakers">Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa.</ref> and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million).<ref name="NZ speakers">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 (3,008,05Image:Cool.gif and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer.</ref> Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continuums 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.<ref>Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday November 19, 2004.</ref> Following India is the People's Republic of China.<ref>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]).</ref>
| Country | Native speakers | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Modèle:USA | 214,809,000<ref name="US speakers"/> |
| 2 | Modèle:UK | 58,200,000<ref name="Crystal"/> |
| 3 | Image:Flag of Canada.svg Canada | 17,694,830<ref name="Canada speakers"/> |
| 4 | Modèle:AUS | 15,013,965<ref name="Australia speakers"/> |
| 5 | Modèle:IRL | 4,200,000+ (Approx)<ref name="Crystal"/> |
| 6 | Modèle:ZAF | 3,673,203<ref name="SA speakers"/> |
| 7 | Modèle:NZL | 3,500,000+ (Approx)<ref name="NZ speakers"/> |
| 8 | Modèle:SIN | 665,087<ref name="Singapore speakers">2000 Census. Native speakers aged 5 or more</ref> |
English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Guernsey 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 Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 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 (various forms of American English).
In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nigeria, Northern Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, 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 an important language in several former colonies or current dependent territories of the United Kingdom and the United States, such as in Hong Kong and Mauritius.
English is not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom.<ref>Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006.</ref><ref>U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research -- United Kingdom.</ref> Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments.<ref>U.S. ENGLISH,Inc</ref>
English as a global language
Modèle:See also Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "global language", the lingua franca of the modern era.<ref name="Graddol"> |url=http://www.britishcouncil.org/de/learning-elt-future.pdf |title=The Future of English? |accessdate=2007-04-15 |date=1997 |author=David Graddol |publisher=The British Council</ref> 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 linguistsModèle: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, as well as one of the official languages of the European Union, the United Nations, and most international athletic organisations, 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%).<ref>The Official EU languages</ref> In the EU, a large fraction of the population reports being able to converse to some extent in English. Among non-English speaking 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%). <ref>European Union</ref> Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers.
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.<ref name="Graddol"> |url=http://www.britishcouncil.org/de/learning-elt-future.pdf |title=The Future of English? |accessdate=2007-04-15 |date=1997 |author=David Graddol |publisher=The British Council</ref> 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.
Dialects and regional varieties
The expansion of the British Empire and—since WWII—the primacy of the United States have spread English throughout the globe.<ref name="Graddol"> David Graddol
(1997) . The Future of English? . The British Council
. Retrieved on 2007-04-15. </ref> Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins.
The major varieties of English include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney slang 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, although no variety is clearly considered the only standard, there are a number of accents considered to be more prestigious, such as Received Pronunciation in Britain.
Scots developed — largely independently — 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 speakers, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language.
Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in a great many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have formed using an English base, such as Jamaican Creole, 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. Franglais, for example, is used to describe French with a very high English word content; it is found on the Channel Islands. Another variant, spoken in the border bilingual regions of Québec in Canada, is called FrEnglish.
Constructed varieties of English
- Basic English is simplified for easy international use. It is used by manufacturers and other international businesses to write manuals and communicate. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners.
- Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words.
- English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language.
- 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.
- English as a lingua franca for Europe and Euro-English are concepts of standardising English for use as a second language in continental Europe.
- 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.
- E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be.
Euro-English (also EuroEnglish or Euro-English) terms are English translations of European concepts that are not native to English-speaking countries. Because of the United Kingdom's (and even the Republic of Ireland's) involvement in the European Union, the usage focuses on non-British concepts. This kind of Euro-English was parodied when English was "made" one of the constituent languages of Europanto.
Phonology
Vowels
Notes:
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.
- American English lacks this sound; words with this sound are pronounced with Modèle:IPA or Modèle:IPA.
- Many dialects of North American English do not have this vowel. See Cot-caught merger.
- The North American variation of this sound is a rhotic vowel.
- 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 Modèle:IPA.
- This sound is often transcribed with Modèle:IPA or with Modèle:IPA.
- The diphthongs Modèle:IPA and Modèle:IPA are monophthongal for many General American speakers, as Modèle:IPA and Modèle:IPA.
- The letter <U> can represent either Modèle:IPA or the iotated vowel Modèle:IPA. In BRP, if this iotated vowel Modèle:IPA occurs after Modèle:IPA, Modèle:IPA, Modèle:IPA or Modèle:IPA, it often triggers palatalization of the preceding consonant, turning it to Modèle:IPA, Modèle:IPA, Modèle:IPA and Modèle:IPA respectively, as in tune, during, sugar, and azure. In American English, palatalization does not generally happen unless the Modèle:IPA is followed by r, with the result that Modèle:IPA turn to Modèle:IPA, Modèle:IPA, Modèle:IPA and Modèle:IPA respectively, as in nature, verdure, sure, and treasure.
- 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, instead of Modèle:IPA, Modèle:IPA. See pour-poor merger.
- This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In some accents, the schwa offglide of Modèle:IPA may be dropped, monophthising and lengthening the sound to Modèle:IPA.
See also
- International Phonetic Alphabet for English for more vowel charts.
Consonants
This is the English Consonantal System using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
| labial-velar | |
|---|---|
| approximant | Modèle:IPAModèle:Footnote |
- The velar nasal Modèle:IPA 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.
- The alveolar flap Modèle:IPA is an allophone of /t/ and /d/ in unstressed syllables in North American English and Australian English.<ref>Modèle:Cite journal</ref> 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 Modèle:IPA. This is the same sound represented by single r in most varieties of Spanish.
- 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 sounds Modèle:IPA are labialised in some dialects. Labialisation is never contrastive in initial position and therefore is sometimes not transcribed. Most speakers of General American realize <r> (always rhoticized) as the retroflex approximant Modèle:IPA, whereas the same is realized in Scottish English, etc. as the alveolar trill.
- 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 only by Scottish or Welsh speakers of English for Scots/Gaelic words such as loch Modèle:IPA or by some speakers for loanwords from German and Hebrew like Bach Modèle:IPA or Chanukah /xanuka/. In some dialects such as Scouse (Liverpool) either Modèle:IPA or the affricate Modèle:IPA may be used as an allophone of /k/ in words such as docker Modèle:IPA. 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.
- Voiceless w Modèle:IPA 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/.
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 (/Modèle:IPA/, /Modèle:IPA/, /Modèle:IPA/, and /Modèle:IPA/) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable — compare pin Modèle:IPA and spin Modèle:IPA, crap Modèle:IPA and scrap Modèle:IPA.
- In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well.
- In other dialects, such as Indo-Pakistani 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 (e.g. many varieties of American English) — examples: tap [[[Modèle:IPA]]], sack [[[Modèle:IPA]]].
- Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) — examples: sad [[[Modèle:IPA]]], bag [[[Modèle:IPA]]]. In other dialects they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position.
Supra-segmental features
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:
- -Modèle:IPA Do you need anything?
- -Modèle:IPA I don't, no
- -Modèle:IPA I don't know (contracted to, for example, -Modèle:IPA or Modèle:IPA I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further)
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. All good dictionaries of English mark the accentuated syllable(s) by either placing an apostrophe-like ( Modèle:IPA ) sign either before (as in IPA, Oxford English Dictionary, or Merriam-Webster dictionaries) or after (as in many other dictionaries) the syllable where the stress accent falls.
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 hadn't stolen that money. (... Someone else had.)
- John hadn't stolen that money. (... You said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.)
- John hadn't stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.)
- John hadn't stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.)
- John hadn't stolen that money. (... He stole something else.)
Also
- I didn't tell her that. (... Someone else told her.)
- I didn't tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... But now I will!)
- I didn't tell her that. (... I didn't say it; she could have inferred it, etc.)
- I didn't tell her that. (... I told someone else.)
- I didn't tell her that. (... I told her something else.)
This can also be used to express emotion:
- Oh really? (...I didn't know that)
- Oh really? (...I disbelieve you)
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 be paid now?")
- Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.")
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 rich resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive tenses.
Vocabulary
The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries.<ref>For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion Schöner)</ref>
Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) which include all the basics such as pronouns (I, my, you, it) and conjunctions (and, or, but) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English, and more common in ordinary speech. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive or superfluous use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious (as in the stereotypical policeman's talk of "apprehending the suspect") or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" is critical of this, as well as other perceived abuses 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). The richness of the language arises from the variety of different meanings and nuances such synonyms harbour, 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.
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 English-speaking lower classes.
In everyday speech, the majority of words will normally be Germanic. If a speaker wishes to make a forceful point in an argument in a very blunt way, Germanic words will usually be chosen. 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. 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: cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, über, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, modern Latin, 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.
Number of words in English
English has an extraordinarily rich vocabulary and willingness to absorb new words. As the General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states:
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, there is no Academy to define officially accepted words. 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:
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.<ref>Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw</ref>
Word origins
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 Old English) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly from Norman French or other Romance languages).
Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the various origins of English vocabulary. None, as yet, are considered definitive by a majority of 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)<ref>Modèle:Cite book</ref> that estimated the origin of English words as follows:
- 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% (e.g. Arabic-English loanwords)
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:<ref>Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com</ref>
- French (langue d'oïl), 41%
- "Native" English, 33%
- Latin, 15%
- Danish, 2%
- Dutch, 1%
- Other, 10%
However, 83% of the 1,000 most-common English words are Anglo-Saxon in origin.<ref>Old English Online</ref>
Dutch origins
Words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are often from Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples.
French origins
There are many words of French origin in English, such as 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. A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Oïl language 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.
Writing system
English has been written using the Latin alphabet since around the ninth century. (Before that, Old English had been written using the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc.) 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. See English orthography.
Basic sound-letter correspondence
Modèle:Seealso 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 used 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 | |
| [[voiceless postalveolar fricative|Modèle:IPA]] | 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 | |
| [[voiced postalveolar fricative|Modèle:IPA]] | 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) | |
| [[voiceless postalveolar affricate|Modèle:IPA]] | ch, tch, t before u future, culture | t (+ u, ue, eu) tune, Tuesday, Teutonic (most dialects - see yod coalescence) |
| [[voiced postalveolar affricate|Modèle:IPA]] | j, g (+ e, i, y), dg (+ e, i, consonant) badge, judg(e)ment | d (+ u, ue, ew) dune, due, dew (most dialects - another example of yod coalescence) |
| [[alveolar approximant|Modèle:IPA]] | r, wr (initial) wrangle | |
| j | y (initially or surrounded by vowels) | |
| l | l | |
| [[labial-velar approximant|Modèle:IPA]] | w | |
| [[voiceless labial-velar fricative|Modèle:IPA]] | wh (pronounced hw) | Scottish and Irish English, as well as some varieties of American, New Zealand, and English English |
Written accents
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). In most cases it is acceptable to leave out the marks, especially in digital communications where the QWERTY keyboard lacks any marked letters.
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 no matter where in the English-speaking world it is written. In spoken English, by contrast, there are a vast number of differences between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. In spite of this, 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.
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, comparable with Ido. Thus Basic English is used by companies who need to make complex books for international use, and by 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. 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 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".
Notes
References
- Modèle:Cite book
- Modèle:Cite book
- Modèle:Cite book
- Modèle:Cite book
- Modèle:Cite book
- Modèle:Cite book
- Modèle:Cite book
- Modèle:Cite book [1]
- Modèle:Cite book
- Modèle:Cite book
- Keyton, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953.
See also
- English language learning and teaching
- Teaching English as a foreign language
- English for Academic Purposes
External links
Modèle:Wikiversity Modèle:Interwiki
- 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
- The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how English is used by non-native speakers around the world
- 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker
- More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker
Dictionaries
- Merriam-Webster's online dictionary
- Oxford's online dictionary
- dict.org
- Collection of English bilingual dictionaries
- Dictionary of American Regional English
Modèle:Germanic languages Modèle:History of English Modèle:English dialects Modèle:Working AU languages Modèle:Official UN languages Modèle:Official EU languages Modèle:Official Languages of South AmericaModèle:Link FA Modèle:Link FA
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