Used widely around the world and in international discourse, English, a West Germanic language is named after the Angles. The Angles were a group of Germanic people that migrated to Great Britain.
English is now the number one language in today’s world. Hiring an English tutor online can help you perfect the language, or speak it if you don’t already.
The History of English
The English language traces its roots back to medieval England. The vocabulary of English is said to be derived by Germanic languages, most notably Old Norse. It is equally influenced by Latin and French. English has been evolving for almost two thousand years.
Old English is the collective term for the earliest forms of English. They are made up of dialects that were brought to Great Britain by Anglo Saxon folk in the 5th century. What we know as Middle English started being used in the 11th century. Old French-influenced middle English, and it was around the time of the Norman conquest of England that it became widespread.
In the late 15th century, when the printing press was created in London, Early Modern English began. The King James Bible was the first book to be in widespread print. It was also around the time of the Great Vowel Shift. Between 1400 and 1700, changes were made to the English language, which influenced modern English, and this event was called The Great Vowel Shift. It began in Southern England, and the pronunciation of all Middle English vowels was changed. Some consonants, particularly those that became silent, were changed as well.
Modern English
Because of the influence of the British Empire and the United States in the 17th century, Modern English began to spread. There were printed media that were available back then. Because of electronic media now, English has become the lingua franca in the professions of science, navigation and law. English is the third most-spoken language in the world after Chinese and Spanish. It is one of the official languages or the official language of about 60 sovereign nations.
There are more than 2 billion speakers of the English language in the world today, and it is the second most widely learned language. English is the native language of the majority of people living in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. It is widely used in the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia and is a co-official language of the United Nations. English is also a co-official language of the European Union and is the most widely spoken Germanic language.
English speakers are called Anglophones. Although vocabulary, idioms, grammar, phonetics and phonology vary from region to region, you can still understand English wherever in the world you are unless there are extreme differences.
Why Learn English?
If those aren’t enough reasons to learn the English language, we can’t give you any more reasons why. It is a difficult language to learn, but it is extremely practical to know in the modern world. Because it is spoken and understood by billions of people, you will have no trouble practising it, whether you are on your computer or travelling the world in person.
If you want to learn English, there are several places where you can find an English tutor online. Because English is such a widely used language, English tutors online are a dime a dozen in most countries around the world.
