•♥• English Language History •♥•

ENGLISH LANGUAGE HISTORY
•♥• English Language History •♥• WelcomeSparkle

English is an Anglo-Frisian language brought to Britain in the 5th
Century AD by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany.
The original Old English language was subsequently influenced by two successive waves of invasion.
The first was by speakers of languages in the Scandinavian branch of the
Germanic family, who colonised parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th
centuries.
English is a West Germanic language which is the dominant language in the United Kingdom, the United States, many Commonwealth nations including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other former British colonies.
It is the second most spoken language in the world.
It is estimated that there are 380 million native speakers and 300
million who use English as a second language and a further 100 million
use it as a foreign language.
It is the language of science, aviation, computing, diplomacy, and tourism.
It is listed as the official or co-official language of over 45
countries and is spoken extensively in other countries where it has no
official status.
English plays a part in the cultural, political or economic life of the
following countries. Majority English speaking populations are shown in
Underlined:

Antigua
Australia
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda
Botswana
Brunei (with Malay)
Cameroon (with French)
Canada (with French)
Dominica
Fiji
Gambia
Ghana
Grenada
Guyana
India (with several Indian languages)
Ireland (with Irish Gaelic)
Jamaica
Kenya (with Swahili)
Kiribati
Lesotho (with Sotho)
Liberia
Malawi (with Chewa)
Malta (with Maltese)
Mauritius
Namibia (with Afrikaans)
Nauru (with Nauruan)
New Zealand
Nigeria
Pakistan (with Urdu)
Papua New Guinea
Philippines (with Tagalog)
Puerto Rico (with Spanish)
St Christopher and Nevis
St Lucia
St Vincent
Senegal (with French)
Seychelles (with French)
Sierra Leone
Singapore (with Malay, Mandarin and Tamil)
South Africa (with Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu)
Surinam (with Dutch)
Swaziland (with Swazi)
Tanzania (with Swahili)
Tonga (with Tongan)
Trinidad and Tobago
Tuvalu
Uganda
United Kingdom and its dependecies
United States of America and its dependencies
Vanatu (with French)
Western Samoa (with Samoan)
Zambia
Zimbabwe