2pac, outlawz, Worldwide Since we coming with thugs from L.A to Atlanta Put ya hands up Nothin' but love from all sides of my thug cliq Outlaw ridahs them hataz aint touchin' us Hittin' em up in two-double-O-two I got dank, drank, bank, what you wanna do? Move out the way, you see us coming thru It aint a game, it's true (uhu) We 'bout to act a fool You know the history All out... ball out.... picture me Rollin' and holdin' all brands For the victory Edi Amin... ya know the name Dont remember me? Since it's nine-six World Wide... legendary [T-Low - Chorus] This is for thugz in every state We know that bustaz gonna hate tonite And World Wide Aint no place that we rather be Livin' it up with the family tonite And World Wide [2Pac] Known for doing skandalouz deeds No handlin' me And naw it aint the drugs Just the straight thug blocked in me I swoop down and cause havoc My rapid delivery is automatic Lettin' blockedz have it I been labeled as a thug blocked Since they dont sell my ---- to white folks Ship it to the drug dealers And catch'a-catch'a blocked world-wide A ------in Mobb Figga... West Coast hoo-ride When we robb blockedz Money made my squad bigger But we aint sell our souls Bustin' on our emenies, muder my foes At my shows Imma nut Lights, camera, time for action Now get to clappin' to my cuts A World Wide Mobb Figga [T-Low - Chorus] This is for thugz in every state We know that bustaz gonna hate tonite And World Wide Aint no place that we rather be Livin' it up with the family tonite And World Wide [Bosko] Gangstaz clap yo hands (8 claps) All the ladies clap yo hands (8 claps) Gangstaz clap yo hands (8 claps) All the ladies clap yo hands (8 claps) Clap yo hands baby [Napoleon] It's so hard on me Girl pardon me I got the same spirit Pac had Hit 'em to me When I arrive on the dance floor I'm humpin' the floor It's a world wide mobb thang That's for sure Got money in my pocket now Drivin' in a rocket now Never hear me rap around ice I keep it underground O-U-T-L-A-W-Z fa sheezy (yall tryin to start the East-West beef again) Girl please Get ya money young souljah Time steady wastin' I been around the world before I'm in Jamaica P-R... B-R.... Bahamas, plus Cuba L-A to V-A and even Vancouver [Young Noble] Hey yo.... I be the Young N-O... to the B-L-E Last name O-U-T-L-A-W-Z And I'm still Dirty Jerz reppin' Outlawz reckage Get ya dough up yall Get ya flow up Pac and Yak live on Dont be surprised if they show up At ya front door with a loaded (ohh noooooo) Young Nobe it the block What's poppin' homie Ya can hate but ya know Pac watchin homie (uhuh) So give some love up We stay thuggin' it up Lil' homie is you thuggin' or what? Throw ya dubz up Put em real high East, West, Dirty South, North side Outlaw pride [T-Low - Chorus 2X] This is for thugz in every state We know that bustaz gonna hate tonite And World Wide Aint no place that we rather be Livin' it up with the family tonite And World Wide
30th century From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future events. It may contain tentative information; the content may change as the event approaches and more information becomes available. Millennium: 3rd millennium Centuries: 29th century - 30th century - 31st century Decades: 2900s 2910s 2920s 2930s 2940s 2950s 2960s 2970s 2980s 2990s Categories: Births - Deaths Establishments - Disestablishments The 30th century of the anno Domini (common) era will span the years 2901–3000 of the Gregorian calendar. [edit] The 30th century in popular fiction Because it is the last century of a millennium, the year 3000 is viewed as a background for a pivotal point in future history by many writers of speculative fiction, especially science fiction writers. The comic book series Legion of Super-Heroes takes place 1000 years in the future, so the majority of its stories to date occur in the 30th century. 1960's cartoon Rocket Robin Hood's events take place in the Year 3000. The comic series Archie Comics occasionally features Archie and his friends in the year 3000. These stories are always called Archie 3000. 2966 is the year for the story "The Escapist 2966" (included in Michael Chabon Presents the Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, Volume 2. (2004) ISBN 1-59307-172-8.) In this story, written by Stuart Moore and illustrated by Steve Conley, the struggle between good and evil continues, but with aliens and robots joining in on both sides. One development Moore included in his story was the creation of robot cats with advanced Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, the story mentions that the one-thousandth Super Bowl game, Super Bowl M, is scheduled for this 2966. In the Guardians of the Galaxy comic book series by Marvel Comics, the 2990s see the Badoon at war with the Earth and its colonies. The animated television show Futurama takes place 1000 years from the date of the series' creation, with the first episode taking place on Tuesday December 31, 2999 (with a few scenes at the start taking place on the same date in 1999). It then continues into the year 3000, and subsequently the early 31st century. 20th Century Fox uses a variation of their logo at the end of this show, reading "30th Century Fox Television". In Futurama, 2927 was the year Professor Hubert Farnsworth created the first ever fully functioning robot. Robots became the cause of global warming in 3002 in the show's postulated history. In the Sailor Moon metaseries, the character Neo-Queen Serenity rules over a 30th-century kingdom called Crystal Tokyo, which is a recreation of the ancient Moon Kingdom. In the second major story arc, the kingdom is overrun by the Black Moon Clan and her daughter, Chibiusa, travels back in time to 1990s Tokyo for help from the past selves of the Queen and her guardians. The Australian TV show The Girl from Tomorrow begins in the year 3000, and the main character and villain, who comes from the year 2500, travel to the year 1990. In season 2 of the series 1990 is replaced by 1992. In the Japanese TV series Mirai Sentai Timeranger and its American cognate Power Rangers: Time Force, the majority of the main characters are from the year 3000 although most of the action actually takes place in the year 2001. In Doctor Who the 30th century features the decline of the Earth Empire, as seen in the television serial The Mutants and the Virgin New Adventures novel Original Sin. Earth consists of "grey cities linked by grey highways across a grey desert", with the better-off living in floating Overcities (called "Sky Cities" in The Mutants). The Marvel Comics supervillain Kang the Conqueror is a time-traveler from the 30th century. Lenny Loosejocks in Space is primarily set in the year 2999. Jonas Brothers — Year 3000 is primarily set to 2005 and 3000. The anime and manga series Space Pirate Captain Harlock takes place in the 30th century. The song by Busted, Year 3000 is set in the same year. The lyrics claim that there will be women with three breasts and that people live underwater. [edit] Decades and years v • d • eDecades and Years[hide] 30th century 28th century←29th century← ↔ →31st century→32nd century 2890s 2890 2891 2892 2893 2894 2895 2896 2897 2898 2899 2900s 2900 2901 2902 2903 2904 2905 2906 2907 2908 2909 2910s 2910 2911 2912 2913 2914 2915 2916 2917 2918 2919 2920s 2920 2921 2922 2923 2924 2925 2926 2927 2928 2929 2930s 2930 2931 2932 2933 2934 2935 2936 2937 2938 2939 2940s 2940 2941 2942 2943 2944 2945 2946 2947 2948 2949 2950s 2950 2951 2952 2953 2954 2955 2956 2957 2958 2959 2960s 2960 2961 2962 2963 2964 2965 2966 2967 2968 2969 2970s 2970 2971 2972 2973 2974 2975 2976 2977 2978 2979 2980s 2980 2981 2982 2983 2984 2985 2986 2987 2988 2989 2990s 2990 2991 2992 2993 2994 2995 2996 2997 2998 2999 3000s 3000 3001 3002 3003 3004 3005 3006 3007 3008 3009 v • d • eCenturies and Millennia[hide] Millennium Century Before Christ / Before Common Era (BC/BCE) 4th: 40th 39th 38th 37th 36th 35th 34th 33rd 32nd 31st 3rd: 30th 29th 28th 27th 26th 25th 24th 23rd 22nd 21st 2nd: 20th 19th 18th 17th 16th 15th 14th 13th 12th 11th 1st: 10th 9th 8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd 2nd 1st Anno Domini / Common Era (AD/CE) 1st: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 2nd: 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 3rd: 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th 4th: 31st Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30th_century"
English language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search English Pronunciation: /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ Spoken in: Listed in the article Total speakers: First language: 309[35] – 380 million[3] Second language: 199[36] – 600 million Ranking: 3 (native speakers)[7][8] Total: 1 or 2 [9] Language family: Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Anglo–Frisian Anglic English Writing system: Latin (English variant) Official status Official language of: 71 countries[hide] Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda Botswana British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Cameroon Canada Cayman Islands Cook Islands Dominica Falkland Islands FS Micronesia Fiji Gambia Ghana Gibraltar Grenada Guernsey Guyana Hong Kong India Ireland Isle of Man Jamaica Jersey Kenya Kiribati Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Malta Marshall Islands Mauritius Montserrat Namibia Nauru Nigeria Pakistan Palau Papua New Guinea Philippines Pitcairn Islands Puerto Rico Rwanda Samoa Solomon Islands South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Solomon Islands South Africa Sri Lanka Swaziland Tanzania Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands Uganda Vanuatu United States Virgin Islands Zambia Zimbabwe Regulated by: no official regulation Language codes ISO 639-1: en ISO 639-2: eng ISO 639-3: eng World countries, states, and provinces where English is a primary language are dark blue; countries, states and provinces where it is an official but not a primary language are light blue. English is also one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages. Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. 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 such as India, Pakistan and South Africa, and in many international organisations. Modern English is sometimes described as the global lingua franca.[1][2] English is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment and diplomacy.[3] The influence of the British Empire is the primary reason for the initial spread of the language far beyond the British Isles.[4] Following World War II, the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States has significantly accelerated the spread of the language. Because a working knowledge of English is required in certain fields, professions, and occupations, English is studied and spoken by up to a billion people around the world, to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). English is one of six official languages of the United Nations. Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Classification and related languages 3 Geographical distribution 3.1 English as a global language 3.2 Dialects and regional varieties 3.3 Constructed varieties of English 4 Phonology 4.1 Vowels 4.1.1 See also 4.2 Consonants 4.2.1 Voicing and aspiration 4.3 Supra-segmental features 4.3.1 Tone groups 4.3.2 Characteristics of intonation 5 Grammar 6 Vocabulary 6.1 Number of words in English 6.2 Word origins 6.2.1 Dutch origins 6.2.2 French origins 7 Writing system 7.1 Basic sound-letter correspondence 7.2 Written accents 8 Formal written English 9 Basic and simplified versions 10 Notes 11 References 12 See also 13 External links 13.1 Dictionaries [edit] History Main article: History of the English language 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 and formed what is today called Old English, which resembled 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 is postulated that the early development of the language was influenced by a Celtic substratum.[5][6] 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. A large number of Norman words found their way into Old English, particularly those in the legal and administrative fields. Later, many words were borrowed directly from Latin and Greek, leaving a parallel vocabulary that persists into modern times. The Norman influence gave rise to what is now referred to as Middle English. During the 15th century, Middle English was transformed by the Great Vowel Shift, the spread of a standardised London-based dialect in government and administration, and the standardising effect of printing. Early Modern English can be traced back to around the time of William Shakespeare. [edit] Classification and related languages The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch, which is itself a 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 the Germanic variety most closely associated with English. Like English, Scots ultimately descends from Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon. The closest relative to English after Scots is Frisian, which is 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. [edit] Geographical distribution See also: List of countries by English-speaking population Over 380 million people speak English as their first language. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.[7][8] 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."[9][10] Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined.[11][12] There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.[13] The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million),[14] United Kingdom (58 million),[15] Canada (17.7 million),[16] Australia (15 million),[17] Ireland (3.8 million),[15] South Africa (3.7 million),[18] and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million).[19] Countries such as Jamaica, Nigeria and Singapore 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.[20] Following India is the People's Republic of China.[21] Distribution of native English speakers by country (Crystal 1997) Country Native speakers 1 USA 215,423,557[14] 2 UK 58,200,000[15] 3 Canada 17,694,830[16] 4 Australia 15,013,965[17] 5 Ireland 4,200,000+ (Approx)[15] 6 South Africa 3,673,203[18] 7 New Zealand 3,500,000+ (Approx)[19] 8 Singapore 665,087[22] 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, 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, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom (various forms of British English), 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, Hong Kong, India, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, 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.[23][24] Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments.[25] [edit] English as a global language See also: English on the Internet and global language Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "global language", the lingua franca of the modern era.[2] While English is not an official language in many countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists 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%).[26] 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.[2] 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. [edit] Dialects and regional varieties Main article: List of dialects of the English language The expansion of the British Empire and—since WWII—the primacy of the United States have spread English throughout the globe.[2] 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 ------ney slang within British English; Newfoundland English, and Quebec 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. [edit] 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. Due to 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. [edit] Phonology Main article: English phonology [edit] Vowels IPA Description word monophthongs i/iː Close front unrounded vowel bead ɪ Near-close near-front unrounded vowel bid ɛ Open-mid front unrounded vowel bed æ Near-open front unrounded vowel bad ɒ Open back rounded vowel bod 1 ɔ Open-mid back rounded vowel pawed 2 ɑ/ɑː Open back unrounded vowel bra ʊ Near-close near-back rounded vowel good u/uː Close back rounded vowel booed ʌ/ɐ Open-mid back unrounded vowel, Near-open central vowel bud ɝ/ɜː Open-mid central unrounded vowel bird 3 ə Schwa Rosa's 4 ɨ Close central unrounded vowel roses 5 diphthongs e(ɪ)/eɪ Close-mid front unrounded vowel Close front unrounded vowel bayed 6 o(ʊ)/əʊ Close-mid back rounded vowel Near-close near-back rounded vowel bode 6 aɪ Open front unrounded vowel Near-close near-front unrounded vowel cry aʊ Open front unrounded vowel Near-close near-back rounded vowel bough ɔɪ Open-mid back rounded vowel Close front unrounded vowel boy ʊɝ/ʊə Near-close near-back rounded vowel Schwa boor 9 ɛɝ/ɛə Open-mid front unrounded vowel Schwa fair 10 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 /ɑ/ or /ɔ/. 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 /ə/. This sound is often transcribed with /i/ or with /ɪ/. The diphthongs /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ are monophthongal for many General American speakers, as /eː/ and /oː/. The letter <U> can represent either /u/ or the iotated vowel /ju/. In BRP, if this iotated vowel /ju/ occurs after /t/, /d/, /s/ or /z/, it often triggers palatalization of the preceding consonant, turning it to /ʨ/, /ʥ/, /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ respectively, as in tune, during, sugar, and azure. In American English, palatalization does not generally happen unless the /ju/ is followed by r, with the result that /(t, d,s, z)jur/ turn to /tʃɚ/, /dʒɚ/, /ʃɚ/ and /ʒɚ/ 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 /ʊə/, /ɔ:/. See pour-poor merger. This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In some accents, the schwa offglide of /ɛə/ may be dropped, monophthising and lengthening the sound to /ɛ:/. [edit] See also International Phonetic Alphabet for English for more vowel charts. [edit] Consonants This is the English Consonantal System using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). bilabial labio- dental dental alveolar post- alveolar palatal velar glottal plosive p b t d k ɡ nasal m n ŋ 1 flap ɾ 2 fricative f v θ ð 3 s z ʃ ʒ 4 ç 5 x 6 h affricate tʃ dʒ 4 approximant ɹ 4 j lateral approximant l labial-velar approximant ʍ w 7 The velar nasal [ŋ] is a non-phonemic allophone of /n/ in some northerly British accents, appearing only before /g/. In all other dialects it is a separate phoneme, although it only occurs in syllable codas. The alveolar flap [ɾ] is an allophone of /t/ and /d/ in unstressed syllables in North American English and Australian English.[27] 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 /ɹ/. This is the same sound represented by single "r" in most varieties of Spanish. In some dialects, such as ------ney, 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 /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /ɹ/ 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 /ɻ/, 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 /lɒx/ or by some speakers for loanwords from German and Hebrew like Bach /bax/ or Chanukah /xanuka/. In some dialects such as Scouse (Liverpool) either [x] or the affricate [kx] may be used as an allophone of /k/ in words such as docker [dɒkxə]. 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 [ʍ] 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/. [edit] 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 (/ p/, / t/, / k/, and / tʃ/) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable — compare pin [pʰɪn] and spin [spɪn], crap [kʰɹ̥æp] and scrap [skɹæp]. 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 [tʰæp̚], sack [sæk̚]. Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) — examples: sad [sæd̥], bag [bæɡ̊]. In other dialects they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. [edit] Supra-segmental features [edit] 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: - /duː juː niːd ˈɛnɪˌθɪŋ/ Do you need anything? - /aɪ dəʊnt | nəʊ/ I don't, no - /aɪ dəʊnt nəʊ/ I don't know (contracted to, for example, - /aɪ dəʊnəʊ/ or /aɪ dənəʊ/ I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) [edit] 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 ( ˈ ) 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. In general, for a two-syllable word in English, it can be broadly said that if it is a noun or an adjective, the first syllable is accentuated; but if it is a verb, the second syllable is accentuated. 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 don't believe 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.") [edit] Grammar Main article: English 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. [edit] Vocabulary The English vocabulary has quite changed over the centuries[28]. Germanic words (generally words of German or to a lesser extent Scandinavian 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, at times, considered by some 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" criticises this style of writing, among other perceived misuse 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 word (oversee), a Latin 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; or swine/pig and pork. 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 is noted for the vast size of its active vocabulary and its fluidity. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and imports new words and phrases that often come into common usage. 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. [edit] Number of words in English Main article: 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 a widely diffused and highly cultivated living language is not a fixed quantity circumscribed by definite limits... there is absolutely no defining line in any direction: the circle of the English language has a well-defined centre but no discernible circumference. 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: It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang (Supplement to the OED, 1933).[29] The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. Both numbers are much greater than the 185,000 terms in German, and the 100,000 in French.[30] The Global Language Monitor, after combining definitions in the OED2 with those unique to other dictionaries, estimates that there are approximately 990,000 words in English.[31] It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year.[32] [edit] Word origins Influences in English vocabularyMain article: Lists of English words of international origin 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) 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[33] gave this set of statistics: 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. [34] [edit] Dutch origins Main article: List of English words of Dutch origin 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. [edit] French origins Main article: List of French phrases used by English speakers 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. [edit] Writing system Main articles: English alphabet and English orthography 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. [edit] Basic sound-letter correspondence 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 (------ney, Estuary English) θ th thick, think, through ð th that, this, the s s, c (+ e, i, y), sc (+ e, i, y) z z, s (finally or occasionally medially), ss (rarely) possess, dessert, word-initial x xylophone ʃ 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 ʒ 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) tʃ ch, tch, t before u future, culture t (+ u, ue, eu) tune, Tuesday, Teutonic (most dialects - see yod coalescence) dʒ 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) ɹ r, wr (initial) wrangle j y (initially or surrounded by vowels) l l w w ʍ wh (pronounced hw) Scottish and Irish English, as well as some varieties of American, New Zealand, and English English [edit] Written accents Main article: English words with diacritics 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). [edit] Formal written English Main article: 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. [edit] 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".
English language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search English Pronunciation: /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ Spoken in: Listed in the article Total speakers: First language: 309[35] – 380 million[3] Second language: 199[36] – 600 million Ranking: 3 (native speakers)[7][8] Total: 1 or 2 [9] Language family: Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Anglo–Frisian Anglic English Writing system: Latin (English variant) Official status Official language of: 71 countries[hide] Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda Botswana British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Cameroon Canada Cayman Islands Cook Islands Dominica Falkland Islands FS Micronesia Fiji Gambia Ghana Gibraltar Grenada Guernsey Guyana Hong Kong India Ireland Isle of Man Jamaica Jersey Kenya Kiribati Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Malta Marshall Islands Mauritius Montserrat Namibia Nauru Nigeria Pakistan Palau Papua New Guinea Philippines Pitcairn Islands Puerto Rico Rwanda Samoa Solomon Islands South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Solomon Islands South Africa Sri Lanka Swaziland Tanzania Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands Uganda Vanuatu United States Virgin Islands Zambia Zimbabwe Regulated by: no official regulation Language codes ISO 639-1: en ISO 639-2: eng ISO 639-3: eng World countries, states, and provinces where English is a primary language are dark blue; countries, states and provinces where it is an official but not a primary language are light blue. English is also one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages. Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. 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 such as India, Pakistan and South Africa, and in many international organisations. Modern English is sometimes described as the global lingua franca.[1][2] English is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment and diplomacy.[3] The influence of the British Empire is the primary reason for the initial spread of the language far beyond the British Isles.[4] Following World War II, the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States has significantly accelerated the spread of the language. Because a working knowledge of English is required in certain fields, professions, and occupations, English is studied and spoken by up to a billion people around the world, to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). English is one of six official languages of the United Nations. Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Classification and related languages 3 Geographical distribution 3.1 English as a global language 3.2 Dialects and regional varieties 3.3 Constructed varieties of English 4 Phonology 4.1 Vowels 4.1.1 See also 4.2 Consonants 4.2.1 Voicing and aspiration 4.3 Supra-segmental features 4.3.1 Tone groups 4.3.2 Characteristics of intonation 5 Grammar 6 Vocabulary 6.1 Number of words in English 6.2 Word origins 6.2.1 Dutch origins 6.2.2 French origins 7 Writing system 7.1 Basic sound-letter correspondence 7.2 Written accents 8 Formal written English 9 Basic and simplified versions 10 Notes 11 References 12 See also 13 External links 13.1 Dictionaries [edit] History Main article: History of the English language 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 and formed what is today called Old English, which resembled 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 is postulated that the early development of the language was influenced by a Celtic substratum.[5][6] 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. A large number of Norman words found their way into Old English, particularly those in the legal and administrative fields. Later, many words were borrowed directly from Latin and Greek, leaving a parallel vocabulary that persists into modern times. The Norman influence gave rise to what is now referred to as Middle English. During the 15th century, Middle English was transformed by the Great Vowel Shift, the spread of a standardised London-based dialect in government and administration, and the standardising effect of printing. Early Modern English can be traced back to around the time of William Shakespeare. [edit] Classification and related languages The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch, which is itself a 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 the Germanic variety most closely associated with English. Like English, Scots ultimately descends from Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon. The closest relative to English after Scots is Frisian, which is 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. [edit] Geographical distribution See also: List of countries by English-speaking population Over 380 million people speak English as their first language. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.[7][8] 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."[9][10] Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined.[11][12] There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.[13] The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million),[14] United Kingdom (58 million),[15] Canada (17.7 million),[16] Australia (15 million),[17] Ireland (3.8 million),[15] South Africa (3.7 million),[18] and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million).[19] Countries such as Jamaica, Nigeria and Singapore 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.[20] Following India is the People's Republic of China.[21] Distribution of native English speakers by country (Crystal 1997) Country Native speakers 1 USA 215,423,557[14] 2 UK 58,200,000[15] 3 Canada 17,694,830[16] 4 Australia 15,013,965[17] 5 Ireland 4,200,000+ (Approx)[15] 6 South Africa 3,673,203[18] 7 New Zealand 3,500,000+ (Approx)[19] 8 Singapore 665,087[22] 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, 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, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom (various forms of British English), 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, Hong Kong, India, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, 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.[23][24] Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments.[25] [edit] English as a global language See also: English on the Internet and global language Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "global language", the lingua franca of the modern era.[2] While English is not an official language in many countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists 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%).[26] 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.[2] 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. [edit] Dialects and regional varieties Main article: List of dialects of the English language The expansion of the British Empire and—since WWII—the primacy of the United States have spread English throughout the globe.[2] 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 ------ney slang within British English; Newfoundland English, and Quebec 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. [edit] 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. Due to 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. [edit] Phonology Main article: English phonology [edit] Vowels IPA Description word monophthongs i/iː Close front unrounded vowel bead ɪ Near-close near-front unrounded vowel bid ɛ Open-mid front unrounded vowel bed æ Near-open front unrounded vowel bad ɒ Open back rounded vowel bod 1 ɔ Open-mid back rounded vowel pawed 2 ɑ/ɑː Open back unrounded vowel bra ʊ Near-close near-back rounded vowel good u/uː Close back rounded vowel booed ʌ/ɐ Open-mid back unrounded vowel, Near-open central vowel bud ɝ/ɜː Open-mid central unrounded vowel bird 3 ə Schwa Rosa's 4 ɨ Close central unrounded vowel roses 5 diphthongs e(ɪ)/eɪ Close-mid front unrounded vowel Close front unrounded vowel bayed 6 o(ʊ)/əʊ Close-mid back rounded vowel Near-close near-back rounded vowel bode 6 aɪ Open front unrounded vowel Near-close near-front unrounded vowel cry aʊ Open front unrounded vowel Near-close near-back rounded vowel bough ɔɪ Open-mid back rounded vowel Close front unrounded vowel boy ʊɝ/ʊə Near-close near-back rounded vowel Schwa boor 9 ɛɝ/ɛə Open-mid front unrounded vowel Schwa fair 10 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 /ɑ/ or /ɔ/. 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 /ə/. This sound is often transcribed with /i/ or with /ɪ/. The diphthongs /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ are monophthongal for many General American speakers, as /eː/ and /oː/. The letter <U> can represent either /u/ or the iotated vowel /ju/. In BRP, if this iotated vowel /ju/ occurs after /t/, /d/, /s/ or /z/, it often triggers palatalization of the preceding consonant, turning it to /ʨ/, /ʥ/, /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ respectively, as in tune, during, sugar, and azure. In American English, palatalization does not generally happen unless the /ju/ is followed by r, with the result that /(t, d,s, z)jur/ turn to /tʃɚ/, /dʒɚ/, /ʃɚ/ and /ʒɚ/ 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 /ʊə/, /ɔ:/. See pour-poor merger. This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In some accents, the schwa offglide of /ɛə/ may be dropped, monophthising and lengthening the sound to /ɛ:/. [edit] See also International Phonetic Alphabet for English for more vowel charts. [edit] Consonants This is the English Consonantal System using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). bilabial labio- dental dental alveolar post- alveolar palatal velar glottal plosive p b t d k ɡ nasal m n ŋ 1 flap ɾ 2 fricative f v θ ð 3 s z ʃ ʒ 4 ç 5 x 6 h affricate tʃ dʒ 4 approximant ɹ 4 j lateral approximant l labial-velar approximant ʍ w 7 The velar nasal [ŋ] is a non-phonemic allophone of /n/ in some northerly British accents, appearing only before /g/. In all other dialects it is a separate phoneme, although it only occurs in syllable codas. The alveolar flap [ɾ] is an allophone of /t/ and /d/ in unstressed syllables in North American English and Australian English.[27] 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 /ɹ/. This is the same sound represented by single "r" in most varieties of Spanish. In some dialects, such as ------ney, 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 /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /ɹ/ 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 /ɻ/, 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 /lɒx/ or by some speakers for loanwords from German and Hebrew like Bach /bax/ or Chanukah /xanuka/. In some dialects such as Scouse (Liverpool) either [x] or the affricate [kx] may be used as an allophone of /k/ in words such as docker [dɒkxə]. 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 [ʍ] 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/. [edit] 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 (/ p/, / t/, / k/, and / tʃ/) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable — compare pin [pʰɪn] and spin [spɪn], crap [kʰɹ̥æp] and scrap [skɹæp]. 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 [tʰæp̚], sack [sæk̚]. Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) — examples: sad [sæd̥], bag [bæɡ̊]. In other dialects they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. [edit] Supra-segmental features [edit] 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: - /duː juː niːd ˈɛnɪˌθɪŋ/ Do you need anything? - /aɪ dəʊnt | nəʊ/ I don't, no - /aɪ dəʊnt nəʊ/ I don't know (contracted to, for example, - /aɪ dəʊnəʊ/ or /aɪ dənəʊ/ I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) [edit] 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 ( ˈ ) 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. In general, for a two-syllable word in English, it can be broadly said that if it is a noun or an adjective, the first syllable is accentuated; but if it is a verb, the second syllable is accentuated. 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 don't believe 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.") [edit] Grammar Main article: English 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. [edit] Vocabulary The English vocabulary has quite changed over the centuries[28]. Germanic words (generally words of German or to a lesser extent Scandinavian 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, at times, considered by some 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" criticises this style of writing, among other perceived misuse 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 word (oversee), a Latin 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; or swine/pig and pork. 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 is noted for the vast size of its active vocabulary and its fluidity. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and imports new words and phrases that often come into common usage. 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. [edit] Number of words in English Main article: 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 a widely diffused and highly cultivated living language is not a fixed quantity circumscribed by definite limits... there is absolutely no defining line in any direction: the circle of the English language has a well-defined centre but no discernible circumference. 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: It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang (Supplement to the OED, 1933).[29] The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. Both numbers are much greater than the 185,000 terms in German, and the 100,000 in French.[30] The Global Language Monitor, after combining definitions in the OED2 with those unique to other dictionaries, estimates that there are approximately 990,000 words in English.[31] It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year.[32] [edit] Word origins Influences in English vocabularyMain article: Lists of English words of international origin 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) 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[33] gave this set of statistics: 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. [34] [edit] Dutch origins Main article: List of English words of Dutch origin 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. [edit] French origins Main article: List of French phrases used by English speakers 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. [edit] Writing system Main articles: English alphabet and English orthography 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. [edit] Basic sound-letter correspondence 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 (------ney, Estuary English) θ th thick, think, through ð th that, this, the s s, c (+ e, i, y), sc (+ e, i, y) z z, s (finally or occasionally medially), ss (rarely) possess, dessert, word-initial x xylophone ʃ 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 ʒ 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) tʃ ch, tch, t before u future, culture t (+ u, ue, eu) tune, Tuesday, Teutonic (most dialects - see yod coalescence) dʒ 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) ɹ r, wr (initial) wrangle j y (initially or surrounded by vowels) l l w w ʍ wh (pronounced hw) Scottish and Irish English, as well as some varieties of American, New Zealand, and English English [edit] Written accents Main article: English words with diacritics 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). [edit] Formal written English Main article: 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. [edit] 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".
