- About 380 million people use English as their first language and approximately the same number of people uses it as their second language.
- English is an official language in almost 60states, the most commonly spoken language in the UK, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland or Canada.
- English is the third most spoken native language in the world (after Mandarin and Spanish).
- English prevails in science, medicine and technology, IT, business, air and sea travel, music or film industry.
- History of English
- English as an Indo – European language
- Dialect, Varieties, RP, slang
- British x American English
- Studying foreign language
- History of English
- The Celts (6th cent. BC) can be considered as the original inhabitants
- Varieties of Celtic language can be found in Welsh, Scottish and Irish Gaelic.
- Later the Celts were driven out by the Romans (55 BC) who introduced Latin.
- Old English (5th cent. – 11th cent. AD)
- In the 5th century, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes started to invade England.
- They brought inflected Germanic language; it was different from Modern English; had many endings and free word order.
- Many everyday expressions have remained from that time, most words have similar equivalents in German: water, father, house, work, have.
- The Scandinavians influenced English in the 8th century and introduced words like sky, skin, they, their, egg, skull, trust, leg, window.
- The best-known written work from this period is Beowulf.
- The Old English period ended with the Norman Conquest in 1066.
- Middle English (11th – 15th century)
- In 1066 William the Conqueror invaded England and defeated the Saxon King Harold at the battle of Hastings.
- The Normans introduced French and it began to be spoken by the upper-class.
- Ordinary people kept on speaking Old English.
- That explains the existence of two different expressions for one thing: pig – pork, cow – beef, sheep – mutton.
- Expressions for animals come from English because it was language of common people. They kept cattle but they couldn’t afford them.
- Expressions for type of meat come from French, because it was language of upper – class. They could afford the meat.
- French was the language of the government, law and literature.
- Latin was the language of the church.
- English was the language of common people.
- English was changing into a language with a strict word order (subject – verb – object), thousands of new (mainly French) words enriched the English vocabulary.
- The best-known writer from this period is Geoffrey Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales.
- In 1476 William Caxton introduced a printing press to England.
- Until this time, people had to write book yourselves.
- Caxton contributed a lot to the spreading of the English language – he translated a lot of works into English and almost all of the books he printed were in English.
- In 1348 –John Wycliffe translated Bible in English.
- In 1450 – discovered of printing press.
- Early Modern English (15th – 17th century), Modern English (18th century – present)
- It is the time of Shakespeare who invented a large number of new words, such as cold-blooded, fashionable or uncomfortable.
- In 1755 Samuel Johnson produced A Dictionary of the English Language – an English-English dictionary which contained explanations of almost 43 000 words.
- Nowadays, English it continues to be a living and growing language.
- English as an Indo – European language
- English belong to the Indo – European language, which is divided into smaller groups like the Germanic, the Slavic, and the Celtic.
- English is Germanic.
- Varieties, accents, slang, dialects
- English has many varieties – Australian, Canadian, American, and Indian.
- SE – Standard English or the Queen’s English speakers are expected to use the correct spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.
- There are also dialects – varieties of language that differ in pronunciation, grammar or vocabulary from each other.
- Accents describe only pronunciation, so an Englishman may speak SE, but with regional accent.
- The Standard English accent is called RP – Received Pronunciation. Surveys suggest that only 2-3% of the UK population use RP.
- For Scottish accent is characteristic it’s rolling “r”.
- Irishman is easy to detect by an American – sounding accent and pronunciation of “th” as “t”.
- Slang – it contains special vocabulary and it’s used by special group of people (thieves).
- The Cockney Rhyming Slang is a coded rhyming language invented by Cockneys in 19th century in order to they could speak in front of the Police without being understand. It uses phrases that rhymes with a certain world which you want to say.
- I fell down apples and pears = stairs.
- A lost my dog and bone = phone.
- British x American English
- The American English tends to simplify grammar and spelling.
- They also differ in vocabulary and pronunciation.
- Differences in vocabulary
- Secondary school in B x high school in A
- Underground x subway
- Differences in grammar
- In England they say “I’ve just seen her” but in America say only “I just saw her”.
- Or “I haven’t got much time” in English language, in American language “I don’t have much time”.
- Next differences are in spelling
- Colour x color
- Travelled x travelled
- They aren’t the same in pronunciation
- (siti) x (sidi)
- (body) x (bady)
- Studying foreign language
- Learning foreign language is really important.
- It’s indispensable for communication abroad.
- I think, that nowadays foreign language it’s also very useful when you try find a job.