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| Modern English | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation: | /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/[1] | |
| Spoken in: | Listed in the article | |
| Total speakers: | First language: 309[2] – 380 million[3] Second language: 199[4] – 600 million[5] Overall: ≈ 1.8 billion[6] |
|
| Ranking: | 3 (native speakers)[7][8] Total: 1 or 2 [9] |
|
| Language family: | Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Anglo–Frisian Anglic Modern English |
|
| Writing system: | Latin (English variant) | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | 53 countries United Nations |
|
| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | en | |
| ISO 639-2: | eng | |
| ISO 639-3: | eng | |
 |
||
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Modern English is the form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift, completed in roughly 1550.
Despite some differences in vocabulary, texts from the early 17th century, such as the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, are considered to be in Modern English, or more specifically, are referred to as using Early Modern English.
Modern English has a large number of dialects spoken in diverse countries throughout the world. Most of these, however, are mutually intelligible. This includes American English, Australian English, British English, Canadian English, Caribbean English, Hiberno-English, Indo-Pakistani English, New Zealand English, Philippine English, Singaporean English, and South African English. These dialects may be met in different contexts; for example, some American actors in Hollywood or historical or mythic epics often employ British-derivative accents while many British, Australian, and non-native English-speaking international pop singers sing in an 'industry neutral' American accent to appeal to an international demographic.
According to Ethnologue, there are over 508 million speakers of English as a first or second language as of 1999, a number dwarfed only by the Chinese language in terms of the number of speakers. However, Chinese has a smaller geographical range and is spoken primarily in mainland China and Taiwan and also by a sizable immigrant community in North America. In contrast, English is spoken in a vast number of territories including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, and Southern Africa. Its large number of speakers, plus its worldwide presence, have made English a common language for use in such diverse applications as controlling airplanes, developing software, conducting international diplomacy, and business relations.
Contents |
History
Modern English began in England during the Elizabethan era which is also around the time of the great playwright and poet William Shakespeare.
English was adopted in regions around the world such as the United States, India, and Australia through colonization by the British Empire. As Great Britain began colonising North America, Asia, and Africa, the English language and other customs and ideas spread around the world. This is considered an aspect of the Columbian Exchange.
Influences on Modern English
Early Modern English lacked uniformity in spelling, but Samuel Johnson's dictionary, published in 1755 in England, was influential in establishing a standard form of spelling. Noah Webster did the same in America, publishing his dictionary in 1828; see American and British English spelling differences.
Public education increased literacy, and more people had access to books (and therefore to a standard language) with the spread of public libraries in the 19th century. Many words entered English from other languages as a result of contact with other cultures through trade and settlement and from the migration of large numbers of people to the United States from other countries. World War I and World War II threw together people from different backgrounds, and the greater social mobility afterwards helped to lessen the differences between social accents, at least in the UK. The development of radio broadcasting in the early 20th century familiarised the population with accents and vocabulary from outside their own localities, often for the first time, and this phenomenon continued with film and television.
Outline of changes in Modern English
The following is an outline of the major changes in Modern English compared to its previous form (Middle English). Note, however, that these are generalizations, and some of these may not be true for specific dialects:
Phonology
See the sound changes c.1600-1725 and sound changes c.1725-1900 sections of the Phonological history of the English language page.
Syntax
- disuse of the T-V distinction (thou, ye).
- use of auxiliary verbs becomes mandatory in interrogative sentences.
- rise and fall of prescriptive grammarians.
See also
References
- ^ "English, a. and n." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 6 September 2007 <http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50075365
- ^ Ethnologue (1984 estimate)
- ^ The Triumph of English, The Economist, Dec. 20th, 2001
- ^ Ethnologue (1999 estimate)
- ^ "20,000 Teaching Jobs". Oxford Seminars. Retrieved on 2007-02-18.
- ^ "Lecture 7: World-Wide English". EHistLing. Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
- ^ Ethnologue, 1999
- ^ CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World).
- ^ Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages
External links
- Ethnologue's "ENGLISH: a language of United Kingdom"
- World English Organisation
- Shakespeare's Influence on Early Modern English
- Late-Modern English Glossary
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 3 October 2008, at 04:43.
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