Native-speakers, of course, use the articles correctly without thinking in everyday spoken language. Modern English is analytic (i.e., relatively uninflected), whereas Proto-Indo-European, the ancestral tongue of most of the modern European languages (e.g., German, French, Russian, Greek), was synthetic, or inflected. Many states, however, have passed legislation that designates English as their official language. English language is an example for the importance of a language because it is the international language and has become the most important language to people in many parts of the world. Words formerly distinguished as nouns or verbs by differences in their forms are now often used as both nouns and verbs. Share on Facebook Share on Linkedin. News about English Language, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times. Words from more than 350 languages have entered English in this way. This makes it the most spoken language, ahead of Mandarin Chinese (1.12 billion speakers) and Hindi (637 million speakers). English has what might be called a prehistory as well. In many countries, … An article is like a direct conversation with the reader. The words which are used as articles are the, an and a. Let’s take a look at some examples to clarify the meaning of an article. The exam question … Map showing the use of English as a first language, as an important second language, and as an official language in countries around the world. In the most simple terms an article is a way of letting the listener or speaker know that a noun is either unspecific or specific. Old English originated from a Germanic tribal and linguistic continuum along the Frisian North Sea coast, whose languages gradually evolved into the Anglic languages in the British Isles, and into the Frisian languages and Low German/Low Saxon on the continent. If you cannot find the magazine you want in your town, you may be able to order it for delivery. In addition to the simplicity of inflections, English has two other basic characteristics: flexibility of function and openness of vocabulary. English language, a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family that is closely related to the Frisian, German, and Dutch languages. tetw. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The English language is the primary language of several countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and many of its former colonies, and the United States, and the second language in a number of multilingual … Frisian, spoken by the inhabitants of the Dutch province of Friesland and the islands off the west coast of Schleswig, is the language most nearly related to Modern English. The best articles about language and linguistics from around the net. because there is only one:; The Pope is visiting Russia. One can speak, for example, of planning a table or tabling a plan, booking a place or placing a book, lifting a thumb or thumbing a lift. Instead of crowning a single word as the winner, Oxford Languages looks at the pandemic’s swift and widespread impact on the English language. As of 2020 there are 1.27 billion English speakers around the world. Build on the considerable strengths of bilingual families. The is used to refer to specific or particular nouns; a/an is used to modify non-specific or non-particular nouns. The English language is no different – but why has it changed over the decades? A quirk of the English language: the nonword "ghoti" can be pronounced as 'fish', with the 'gh' from words such as 'tough', the 'o' from words such as 'women', and the 'ti' from words such as 'station'. a/an = indefinite article. Germanic, one of the language groups descended from this ancestral speech, is usually divided by scholars into three regional groups: East (Burgundian, Vandal, and Gothic, all extinct), North (Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish), and West (German, Dutch [and Flemish], Frisian, and English). The country does not have an official language on the federal level. English is an Indo-European language and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. In The Arte of English Poesie, published in 1589, the critic George Puttenham fretted about the importation of new, foreign words – “strange terms of other languages … English grammar exercises and quizzes online. Free exercises on definite and indefinite articles (a, an, the or zero article) Lifestyle. Old English (Englisc, pronounced [ˈeŋɡliʃ]), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages.It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th century, and the first Old English literary works date from the mid-7th century. During the long journey, the family playe… Corrections? ... lucid primer on the fascinating science of linguistics which accessibly explains the complex origins and psychology of language The Story Of English by Robert McCrum A comprehensive history of … "The form OK or okay is probably the most intensively and widely used (and borrowed) word in the history of the language. Share using Email. It has become the world’s lingua franca. English stands in between, with four forms: man, man’s, men, men’s. Some teachers defied an order to begin in-person teaching. Level: beginner. In New York City, 142,000 children are learning English in school. Each article has interactive exercises to help you understand and use the language. Home News. This is why we use the definite article with a superlative adjective: The learner has to decide noun-by-noun which one of the articles to use*. It is most widely used in communicating around the world, Also it is spoken as the first language in many countries. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Updates? English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and is therefore related to most other languages spoken in Europe and western Asia from Iceland to India. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, Back-formations, blends, and other types of word-formation, Transition from Middle English to Early Modern English, https://www.britannica.com/topic/English-language, English language - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). The German and Chinese words for the noun man are exemplary. Its many would-be etymologists have traced it variously to Cockney, French, Finnish, German, Greek, Norwegian, Scots, several African languages, and the Native American language Choctaw, as well as a number of … Who is the president of France?. One speaks in English of the Frankfurt Book Fair, but in German one must add the suffix -er to the place-name and put attributive and noun together as a compound, Frankfurter Buchmesse. In English it is now possible to employ a plural noun as adjunct (modifier), as in wages board and sports editor; or even a conjunctional group, as in prices and incomes policy and parks and gardens committee. Share on Twitter. As we have seen, our language did not simply spring into existence; it was brought from the Continent by Germanic tribes who had no form of writing and hence left no records. The use of these articles depends mainly on whether you are referring to any member of a group, or to a specific member of a group: Indefinite articles - a and an (determiners) English owes its global dominance to being the language of what until recently were two of the world's most powerful nations: the US and the UK. Though closely related to English, German remains far more conservative than English in its retention of a fairly elaborate system of inflections. “You’re on mute” was said on 1,000 percent more calls between executives and investors in 2020 compared with 2019. How the English language became such a mess. What Is the Most Widely Used English Word? Some of the main influences on the evolution of languages include: The movement of people across countries and continents, for example migration and, in previous centuries, colonisation. They are a type of determiner and they go before a noun. It is estimated that about a third of the world’s population, some two billion persons, now use English. We want to help you understand English more. Now all students can enjoy reading and listening to news. As for verbs, if the Modern English word ride is compared with the corresponding words in Old English and Modern German, it will be found that English now has only 5 forms (ride, rides, rode, riding, ridden), whereas Old English ridan had 13, and Modern German reiten has 16. A tutor in Beijing suggests three ways to develop conversation skills using articles, images and read-alouds. In 1996 the Oakland Unified School District gained nationwide attention for officially recognizing AAVE as a second language. German has five forms: Mann, Mannes, Manne, Männer, Männern. Definition: English has two types of articles: definite (the) and indefinite (a, an.) Consequence of the world ’ s, men, men, men, men, men men... 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