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The English Language
Estimates say that about 1 billion people in the world can communicate in English. This number is made up of 402 million first language speakers and about 600 million who speaks it as a second language. In total, English is spoken by one out of every six people in the world and is the most widely used "learning" language, being compulsory for most High Schools students in Japan and South Korea.It is the official language of a number of countries, which go from Western Europe to North America up to Australasia. This wide geographical distribution makes English the most widespread language in the world and as such, many linguists believe it is no longer the exclusive cultural emblem of "native English speakers", but rather a language which is absorbing aspects of different cultures. It is estimated that within fifteen or twenty years there will be more second-language English speakers than native speakers. In the future, English could become the universal language of communication, also thanks to the primary role it has in fields such as informatics or science.
English Literature
The term English literature refers to ancient and modern literature in English as well as to works written in English by non-native speakers.The first relevant period in English Literature came with the Renaissance (16th-17th century), also known as the "Elizabethian" or "Shakespeare" period. The main area of work was theatre, which was lead to popularity by the works of William Shakespeare. What followed was a century of social upheavals which ended in many teathres being closed and with a period of literary stasis. When theatres where opened again, it was the time of the Restoration Literature, shaped by a satirical view of the new nobilty and the rising bourgeoisie. In this period Aphra Behn, the first popular woman writer, published her first works. The Augustinian Age (18th century) produced more formal works, with authors such as Alexander Pope. By this time, English novel had not evolved yet, but Defoe's Robinson Crouse, which can be defined as the "embrion" of novel, had been written.
Romanticism was the age of poetry and of the exploration of nature, which was expressed in the verses of Wordsworth, Lord Byron and Percy Bysse. Novel finally became the leading form of literature of the Victorian Age (1837-1901), which had its protagonists in the Brontė sisters, George Eliot or Charles Dickens.
Modern literature (the one between the two World Wars) brought to the spotlight important writers as DH Lawrence or authors who belonged to the Bloomsbury group, as Virginia Woolf.
History
English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, a group from which have originated the majority of Europeans languages. The proof of these common roots lies in the so-called cognates, that are similar words in different languages: "vater" for German, "pater" for Latin, "pitr" for Sanskrit sound very close to the English "father".English began to shape around 449, when several Germanic tribes migrated to England, mixing with the already settled Celtic-speakers. The result of the mixing of cultures and languages was an intermediate dialect known as Old English.
Starting from the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066 and for the following 300 years, the language spoken in the region was mainly French. This affected and brought many new words to Old English, which now had became Middle English.
Another important step in the shaping of English was the Great Wovel Shift around 1500, from which Modern English originated. This was the language of Shakespeare, who during his literary career contributed to the renovation of the language introducing new words.
Finally, due to the contacts with peoples from around the world which the British had in the 16th century, the vocabulary changed and evolved even more. Borrowed words include names of animals (giraffe, tiger, zebra), clothing (pyjama, turban, shawl), food (spinach, chocolate, orange), scientific and mathematical terms (algebra, geography, species), drinks (tea, coffee, cider), religious terms (Jesus, Islam, nirvana) and much more.
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Resources related to Languages
- Sprachaufenthalt in England (site in German)