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History Of English Language - College Essay

History Of English Language

English is a Germanic Language of the Indo-European Family. It is the second most spoken language in the world. It is estimated that there are 300 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 in 45 countries. English is well on its way to becoming the unofficial international language of the world. Even though Mandarin (Chinese) may be spoken by more people, English is by far the most widespread of the world's languages.
The history of the language can be traced back to the ...

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Their language was called Englisc, which gave us the word, English. During the next few centuries four dialects of English developed: Northumbrian in Northumbria, north of the Humber, Mercian in the Kingdom of Mercia, West Saxon in the Kingdom of Wessex, Kentish in Kent.
During the 7th and 8th Centuries, Northumbria's culture and language dominated Britain. This domination came to an end with the Viking coming in during the 9th Century, which also destroyed Mercia. Only Wessex remained as an independent kingdom. By the 10th Century, the West Saxon dialect became the official language of Britain. Written Old English is mainly known from this period. It was written in an alphabet called Runes, derived from Celtic. The Latin alphabet was brought over from Ireland by Christian missionaries.
At this time the vocabulary of Old English consisted of an Anglo Saxon base with borrowed words from the Scandinavian languages and Latin. Latin gave English words like street, kitchen, ...

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History Of English Language. (2006, November 23). Retrieved November 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/History-Of-English-Language/56034

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 11/23/2006 09:33:54 PM
Category: English
Type: Free Paper
Words: 708
Pages: 3

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