English is a one of the members of the indo-European language. This broad family includes a number of European languages spoken nowadays. The indo-European family consists of many languages such as the Germanic language, Latin and French, the indo-Iranian languages, the salvic languages, the Baltic languages, the Celtic languages, Greek, etc. It was brought to Britain by the German invaders. Later on through the courts and government the Norman influence entered English. Thus, English was developed to be of great flexibility. There are a number of versions of English like old English, Middle English, early modern English and modern English. The main history behind the English language was that the language of German tribes has given rise to the English. In present day scenario English has become a famous language with the number of people speaking this language increasing day by day.
Old English is totally different from today’s modern English. There is a lot of difference between old English and modern English of today. People who know modern English use to face problem while trying to understand old English. The introduction of Christianity was another fact that added a wave to some Greek and Latin words. Middle English was also continued for a certain period of time and after that the modern English came into existence. Modern English was started some time around the 15th century. English language was further modified by the government. The first English dictionary was developed in 1604. The only difference between modern English and early modern English is its vocabulary. Although English language syntax is different from German and other Germanic language, still English syntax use to similar to North Germanic languages. North Germanic languages were supposed to influence English during the Middle English period. The syntax of Dutch is somewhere around English and German. The pronunciation of many words in modern English differ from that of old English.
In the present day scenario where most of the people speaking English as their native language has made English as the third largest language. When there is combination of the native and non-native speakers, English language will become the most common language of the world. In some countries of the world English is termed as the second official language like in India. The countries that use English as their native language are the Unites States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand.
Since English is widely spoken in the world, it is referred as the “world language”. In some of the countries, English is treated as the second official language. The old English period started from 500-1100AD. The Middle English period started from 1100-1500AD. By this time, English was some way modified and as a result there were lots of modifications in the Middle English. After that modern English period was continued from 1500-1800AD. Late-modern English was from the 1800AD to the present day English. English language was modified so far by the government rules and is accepted by the majority of the citizens of the world.
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