English as a world language

Today, when English is one of the major languages in the world, it requires an effort of the imagination to realize that this is a relatively recast thing –that in Shakespeare's time, for example, only a few million people spoke English, and the language was not thought to be very important by the other nations of Europe, and was unknown to the rest of the world.

English has become a world language because of its establishment as a mother tongue outside England, in all the continents of the world. This exporting of English began in the seventeenth century, with the first settle meats in North America. Above all, it is the great growth of population in the United States, assisted by massive immigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, that has given the English language its present standing in the world.

People who speak English fall into one of three groups: those who have learned it as their native language: those who have learned it as a second language in a society that is mainly bilingual; and those who are forced to use it for a practical purpose –administrative, professional or educational. One person in seven of the world's entire population belongs to one of these three groups. Incredibly enough, 75% of the world's mail and 60% of the world's telephone calls are in English.

Basic characteristics:

Simplicity of form.Old English, like modern German, French, Russian and Greek, had many inflections to show singular and plural, tense, person, etc., but centuries words have been simplified. Verbsnow have very few inflections, and do not change according to the noun.

Flexibility.As a result of inflections, English has become, over the past five centuries, a very flexible. Without inflections, the same operate as many different pats Many nouns and verbs have the same form, for example swim, drink, walk, kiss, smile. We can talk about water to d water the flowers: timeto go and to time a race a paper to read and to paper a bedroom. Adjectives can be used as verbs. We warm our hands in front of a fire; if clothes aredirtiedthey need to be cleaned and dried. Prepositions too are flexible. A sixty-year nearing retirement: we can talk about a roundof golf, cards, or drinks.

Openness of vocabulary.This involves the free admissions of word from other languages and the easy с compounds and derivatives. Most world languages have contributed some English at some time, and the process is now being reversed. Purists of the French and Japanese languages are resisting the arrival of English in their vocabulary.

The future of English.Geographically, English is the most widespread language on Earth, second only to Chinese in the number of people who speaks it.

It is the language of business, technology, sport, and aviation. This will no doubt continue, although the proposition that all other languages will die out is absurd.

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