Only Mandarin (Chinese) is
spoken by more people.
It is estimated that there are 300 million native speakers and 300
million who use English as a second language.
It is listed as the official or second official language in 45
countries.
This can be compared to 27 for French, 20 for Spanish and 17 for Arabic.
English is often spoken in other countries where it has no
official status.
The number of people learning English is estimated as 200,000,000
learners in Europe, 150,000,000 in South America, and more than 400,000,000 in
Asia.
It was founded in 1934 as the British Committee for Relations with Other
Countries.
Half of all business deals are conducted in English.
Two thirds of all scientific papers are written in English.
Over 70% of all post is written and addressed in English.
Most international tourism and diplomacy is conducted in English.
Soviet scientists were known all over the world for their works in
nuclear physics, chemistry, laser optics, metallurgy, medicine.
Their articles and reports were translated from Russian into many other
languages.
It was spoken all over the Soviet Union, it was learnt at schools
and universities of Eastern Europe, in many countries of Asia, Africa and Latin
America.
It could be used for international communications in those countries.
After the destruction of the USSR Russian was replaced by English in
most of them.
Even on the territory of many former Soviet Republics English is more
widely used than Russian.
The history of the English language can be traced back to the arrival of
three Germanic tribes to the British Isles during the 5th Century AD.
After the arrival of Germanic tribes most of the Celtic speakers were pushed
into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland.
Some The Celtic Language of Breton is still spoken there today.
The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin.
Written Old English is mainly known from this period.
It was written in an alphabet called Runic.
It was borrowed from the Scandinavian languages.
The Latin Alphabet was brought over from Ireland by Christian
missionaries later.
Old English was used until about 1100.
The Germanic form of plurals (house, housen; shoe, shoen) was replaced
by the French method of making plurals: adding an В«sВ» (house, houses; shoe,
shoes).
This language is called Middle English.
Many familiar words and phrases were coined or first recorded by
Shakespeare.
The dialect of London, where most publishing houses were located, became
the standard. Spelling and grammar were fixed.
The first English dictionary was published in 1604.