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<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" >English language</h1>
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<div id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div>
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<div id="mw-content-text" lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr"><div class="mw-parser-output"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">West Germanic language</div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">For other uses, see <a href="/wiki/English_(disambiguation)" class="mw-redirect mw-disambig" title="English (disambiguation)">English (disambiguation)</a>.</div>
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<table class="infobox vevent"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above above" style="font-size:130%; color: black; background-color: #c9ffd9;">English</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;">Pronunciation</th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="/ɪ/: 'i' in 'kit'">ɪ</span><span title="/ŋ/: 'ng' in 'sing'">ŋ</span><span title="/ɡ/: 'g' in 'guy'">ɡ</span><span title="'l' in 'lie'">l</span><span title="/ɪ/: 'i' in 'kit'">ɪ</span><span title="/ʃ/: 'sh' in 'shy'">ʃ</span></span>/</a></span></span><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEOxford_Learner's_Dictionary2015Entry:_[httpwwwoxfordlearnersdictionariescomuspronunciationenglishenglish_1_English_–_Pronunciation]_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEOxford_Learner's_Dictionary2015Entry:_[httpwwwoxfordlearnersdictionariescomuspronunciationenglishenglish_1_English_–_Pronunciation]-1">[1]</a></sup></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;">Ethnicity</th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><a href="/wiki/English_people" title="English people">English people</a>/<a href="/wiki/Anglo-Saxons" title="Anglo-Saxons">Anglo-Saxons</a> (historically)</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><div style="display:inline-block; padding:0.1em 0;line-height:1.2em;">Native speakers</div></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;">360–400<span class="nowrap"> </span>million (2006)<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2006424–426_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2006424–426-2">[2]</a></sup><br /><a href="/wiki/Second_language" title="Second language">L2 speakers</a>: 750<span class="nowrap"> </span>million;<br />as a <a href="/wiki/Foreign_language" title="Foreign language">foreign language</a>: 600–700 million<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2006424–426_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2006424–426-2">[2]</a></sup></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><div style="display:inline-block; padding:0.1em 0;line-height:1.2em;"><span class="wrap"><a href="/wiki/Language_family" title="Language family">Language family</a></span></div></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><div style="text-align:left;"><a href="/wiki/Indo-European_languages" title="Indo-European languages">Indo-European</a>
<ul style="line-height:100%; margin-left:1.35em;padding-left:0"><li>
<a href="/wiki/Germanic_languages" title="Germanic languages">Germanic</a><ul style="line-height:100%;margin-left:0.45em;padding-left:0;"><li><a href="/wiki/West_Germanic_languages" title="West Germanic languages">West Germanic</a><ul style="line-height:100%;margin-left:0.45em;padding-left:0;"><li><a href="/wiki/Ingvaeonic_languages" class="mw-redirect" title="Ingvaeonic languages">Ingvaeonic</a><ul style="line-height:100%;margin-left:0.45em;padding-left:0;"><li><a href="/wiki/Anglo-Frisian_languages" title="Anglo-Frisian languages">Anglo-Frisian</a><ul style="line-height:100%;margin-left:0.45em;padding-left:0;"><li><a href="/wiki/Anglic_languages" class="mw-redirect" title="Anglic languages">Anglic</a><ul style="line-height:100%;margin-left:0.45em;padding-left:0;"><li><b>English</b></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><div style="display:inline-block; padding:0.1em 0;line-height:1.2em;">Early forms</div></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><div style="text-align:left;"><a href="/wiki/Old_English" title="Old English">Old English</a>
<ul style="line-height:100%; margin-left:1.35em; padding-left:0"><li><a href="/wiki/Middle_English" title="Middle English">Middle English</a>
<ul style="line-height:100%; margin-left:0.45em; padding-left:0"><li><a href="/wiki/Early_Modern_English" title="Early Modern English">Early Modern English</a>
</li></ul>
</li></ul>
</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><div style="display:inline-block; padding:0.1em 0;line-height:1.2em;"><span class="wrap"><a href="/wiki/Writing_system" title="Writing system">Writing system</a></span></div></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><div class="plainlist">
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/Latin_script" title="Latin script">Latin script</a> (<a href="/wiki/English_alphabet" title="English alphabet">English alphabet</a>)</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Anglo_Saxon_runes" class="mw-redirect" title="Anglo Saxon runes">Anglo Saxon runes</a> (historically)</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/English_Braille" title="English Braille">English Braille</a>, <a href="/wiki/Unified_English_Braille" title="Unified English Braille">Unified English Braille</a></li></ul>
</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><div style="display:inline-block; padding:0.1em 0;line-height:1.2em;"><span class="wrap"><a href="/wiki/Manually_coded_language" title="Manually coded language">Signed forms</a></span></div></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><a href="/wiki/Manually_coded_English" title="Manually coded English">Manually coded English</a><br />(multiple systems)</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="color: black; background-color: #c9ffd9;">Official status</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><div style="display:inline-block; padding:0.1em 0;line-height:1.2em;">Official language in</div></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><div class="plainlist">
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/List_of_territorial_entities_where_English_is_an_official_language#Sovereign_states" class="mw-redirect" title="List of territorial entities where English is an official language">67 countries</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/List_of_territorial_entities_where_English_is_an_official_language#Non-sovereign_entities" class="mw-redirect" title="List of territorial entities where English is an official language">27 non-sovereign entities</a></li></ul>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="text-align: center; font-size: 95%;">
<div style="line-height: 1.6em; font-weight: bold; font-size: 100%; text-align: left; font-weight:normal; background:transparent; text-align:left;"><div>Various organisations</div></div>
<ul class="mw-collapsible-content" style="font-size: 105%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: inherit; text-align: left; list-style: none none; margin-left: 0;"><li style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0">
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/United_Nations" title="United Nations">United Nations</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/European_Union" title="European Union">European Union</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Nations" title="Commonwealth of Nations">Commonwealth of Nations</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Council_of_Europe" title="Council of Europe">Council of Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/International_Criminal_Court" title="International Criminal Court">ICC</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund" title="International Monetary Fund">IMF</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/International_Olympic_Committee" title="International Olympic Committee">IOC</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/International_Organization_for_Standardization" title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/NATO" title="NATO">NATO</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/WTO" class="mw-redirect" title="WTO">WTO</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement" title="North American Free Trade Agreement">NAFTA</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Organization_of_American_States" title="Organization of American States">OAS</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Organisation_for_Economic_Co-operation_and_Development" class="mw-redirect" title="Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development">OECD</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Organisation_of_Islamic_Cooperation" title="Organisation of Islamic Cooperation">OIC</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/OPEC" title="OPEC">OPEC</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/GUAM_Organization_for_Democracy_and_Economic_Development" title="GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development">GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum" title="Pacific Islands Forum">PIF</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement" title="UKUSA Agreement">UKUSA Agreement</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Association_of_Southeast_Asian_Nations" class="mw-redirect" title="Association of Southeast Asian Nations">ASEAN</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/ASEAN_Economic_Community" class="mw-redirect" title="ASEAN Economic Community">ASEAN Economic Community</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/South_Asian_Association_for_Regional_Cooperation" title="South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation">SAARC</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Caribbean_Community" title="Caribbean Community">Caribbean Community</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Turkic_Council" title="Turkic Council">Turkic Council</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/International_Organization_of_Turkic_Culture" title="International Organization of Turkic Culture">Türksoy</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Economic_Cooperation_Organization" title="Economic Cooperation Organization">ECO</a></li></ul>
</li></ul>
</div>
</div></td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="color: black; background-color: #c9ffd9;">Language codes</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><span class="nowrap"><a href="/wiki/ISO_639-1" title="ISO 639-1">ISO 639-1</a></span></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><code><span class="plainlinks"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/langcodes_name.php?iso_639_1=en">en</a></span></code></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><span class="nowrap"><a href="/wiki/ISO_639-2" title="ISO 639-2">ISO 639-2</a></span></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><code><span class="plainlinks"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/langcodes_name.php?code_ID=130">eng</a></span></code></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><span class="nowrap"><a href="/wiki/ISO_639-3" title="ISO 639-3">ISO 639-3</a></span></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><code><a href="https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/eng" class="extiw" title="iso639-3:eng">eng</a></code></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><a href="/wiki/Glottolog" title="Glottolog">Glottolog</a></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><code><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/stan1293">stan1293</a></code></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><a href="/wiki/Linguasphere_Observatory" title="Linguasphere Observatory">Linguasphere</a></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><code>52-ABA</code></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><a href="/wiki/File:English_language_distribution.svg" class="image"><img alt="English language distribution.svg" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/English_language_distribution.svg/220px-English_language_distribution.svg.png" decoding="async" width="220" height="112" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/English_language_distribution.svg/330px-English_language_distribution.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/English_language_distribution.svg/440px-English_language_distribution.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="260" /></a><div style="text-align:left;"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r981673959">.mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}</style><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#346699; color:white;"> </span> Regions where English is a majority native language</div>
<link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#99ccff; color:black;"> </span> Regions where English is official but not as a primary native language</div></div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-below noprint selfref" style="background-color:#E7E7FF;padding:0.3em 0.5em;text-align:left;line-height:1.3;"><b>This article contains <a href="/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet" title="International Phonetic Alphabet">IPA</a> phonetic symbols.</b> Without proper <a href="/wiki/Help:IPA#Rendering_issues" title="Help:IPA">rendering support</a>, you may see <a href="/wiki/Specials_(Unicode_block)#Replacement_character" title="Specials (Unicode block)">question marks, boxes, or other symbols</a> instead of <a href="/wiki/Unicode" title="Unicode">Unicode</a> characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see <a href="/wiki/Help:IPA" title="Help:IPA">Help:IPA</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1013635363">.mw-parser-output .sidebar{width:22em;float:right;clear:right;margin:0.5em 0 1em 1em;background:#f8f9fa;border:1px solid #aaa;padding:0.2em;border-spacing:0.4em 0;text-align:center;line-height:1.4em;font-size:88%;display:table}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .sidebar{display:table!important;float:right!important;margin:0.5em 0 1em 1em!important}.mw-parser-output .sidebar a{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-wraplinks a{white-space:normal}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-subgroup{width:100%;margin:0;border-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-left{float:left;clear:left;margin:0.5em 1em 1em 0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-none{float:none;clear:both;margin:0.5em 1em 1em 0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-outer-title{padding-bottom:0.2em;font-size:125%;line-height:1.2em;font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-top-image{padding:0.4em 0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-top-caption,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-pretitle-with-top-image,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-caption{padding-top:0.2em;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-pretitle{padding-top:0.4em;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{padding:0.2em 0.4em;font-size:145%;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{padding-top:0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-image{padding:0.2em 0 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-heading{padding:0.1em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-content{padding:0 0.1em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-content-with-subgroup{padding:0.1em 0 0.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-above,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-below{padding:0.3em 0.4em;font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-collapse .sidebar-above,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-collapse .sidebar-below{border-top:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:1px solid #aaa}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-navbar{text-align:right;font-size:115%}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-collapse .sidebar-navbar{padding-top:0.6em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-list-title{text-align:left;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6em;font-size:105%}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-list-title-c{text-align:center;margin:0 3.3em}@media(max-width:720px){body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .sidebar{width:100%!important;clear:both;float:none!important;margin-left:0!important;margin-right:0!important}}</style><table class="sidebar nomobile hlist"><tbody><tr><td class="sidebar-pretitle">Part of a series on the</td></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-title-with-pretitle"><a class="mw-selflink selflink">English language</a></th></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading">
Topics</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-bottom:0.6em;">
<ul><li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">English language</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/English-speaking_world" title="English-speaking world">English-speaking world</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/English_as_a_second_language" class="mw-redirect" title="English as a second language">English as a second language</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/History_of_English" title="History of English">History of English</a></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading">
Advanced topics</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-bottom:0.6em;">
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/English_as_a_lingua_franca" title="English as a lingua franca">English as a lingua franca</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/European_language" class="mw-redirect" title="European language">European language</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Modern_English" title="Modern English">Modern English</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Loanwords_in_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Loanwords in English">Loanwords in English</a></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading">
Phonology</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-bottom:0.6em;">
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English" title="Phonological history of English">Phonological history of English</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/English_phonology" title="English phonology">English phonology</a></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading">
Dialects</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-bottom:0.6em;">
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/English_language_in_England" title="English language in England">English</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/American_English" title="American English">American</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Anguillian_Creole" title="Anguillian Creole">Anguillian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Leeward_Caribbean_Creole_English" title="Leeward Caribbean Creole English">Antiguan</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Australian_English" title="Australian English">Australian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Bahamian_English" title="Bahamian English">Bahamian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Bajan_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Bajan English">Bajan</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Bay_Islands_English" title="Bay Islands English">Bay Islands</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Belizean_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Belizean English">Belizean</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Bermudian_English" title="Bermudian English">Bermudian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Brunei_English" title="Brunei English">Brunei</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Burmese_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Burmese English">Burmese</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Cameroonian_English" title="Cameroonian English">Cameroonian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Canadian_English" title="Canadian English">Canadian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Caribbean_English" title="Caribbean English">Caribbean</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Minority_languages_of_Denmark#English" title="Minority languages of Denmark">Danish</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/English_in_the_Netherlands" title="English in the Netherlands">Dutch</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Falkland_Islands_English" title="Falkland Islands English">Falkland Islands</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Languages_of_the_Faroe_Islands" title="Languages of the Faroe Islands">Faroe Islands</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Fiji_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Fiji English">Fijian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Languages_of_Finland#English" title="Languages of Finland">Finnish</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Gambian_English" title="Gambian English">Gambian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Languages_of_Germany#Second_languages" title="Languages of Germany">Germany</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Ghanaian_English" title="Ghanaian English">Ghanaian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Languages_of_Greenland" title="Languages of Greenland">Greenlandic</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Guyanese_Creole" title="Guyanese Creole">Guyanese</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Languages_of_Iceland" title="Languages of Iceland">Icelandic</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Indian_English" title="Indian English">Indian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Hiberno-English" title="Hiberno-English">Irish</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Jamaican_English" title="Jamaican English">Jamaican</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Jinglish" class="mw-redirect" title="Jinglish">Japanese</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Kenyan_English" title="Kenyan English">Kenyan</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Demographics_of_Lebanon" title="Demographics of Lebanon">Lebanese</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Liberian_English" title="Liberian English">Liberian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Malawian_English" title="Malawian English">Malawian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Malaysian_English" title="Malaysian English">Malaysian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Manx_English" title="Manx English">Manx</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Myanmar_English" title="Myanmar English">Myanmar</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Namlish" title="Namlish">Namibian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Nepalese_English" title="Nepalese English">Nepali</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/New_Zealand_English" title="New Zealand English">New Zealand</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Nigerian_English" title="Nigerian English">Nigerian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Languages_of_Norway#English" title="Languages of Norway">Norwegian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Pakistani_English" title="Pakistani English">Pakistani</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Philippine_English" title="Philippine English">Philippine</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/San_Andr%C3%A9s%E2%80%93Providencia_Creole" title="San Andrés–Providencia Creole">San Andrés–Providencia</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Scottish_English" title="Scottish English">Scottish</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Singapore_English" title="Singapore English">Singapore</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/South_African_English" title="South African English">South African</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/South_Atlantic_English" title="South Atlantic English">South Atlantic</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Sri_Lankan_English" title="Sri Lankan English">Sri Lankan</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Languages_of_Sweden#English" title="Languages of Sweden">Swedish</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Trinidadian_and_Tobagonian_English" title="Trinidadian and Tobagonian English">Trinidadian and Tobagonian</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Ugandan_English" title="Ugandan English">Ugandan</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Welsh_English" title="Welsh English">Welsh</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Zimbabwean_English" title="Zimbabwean English">Zimbabwe</a></li>
<li><i>see also: <a href="/wiki/List_of_dialects_of_English" title="List of dialects of English">List of dialects of English</a></i></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading">
Teaching</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-bottom:0.6em;">
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/Teaching_English_as_a_second_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Teaching English as a second language">Teaching English as a second language</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Category:English_words_and_phrases" title="Category:English words and phrases">Category:English words and phrases</a></li></ul>
<hr />
<i>Higher category:</i> <a href="/wiki/Language" title="Language">Language</a></td>
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<p><b>English</b> is a <a href="/wiki/West_Germanic_languages" title="West Germanic languages">West Germanic language</a> first spoken in <a href="/wiki/History_of_Anglo-Saxon_England" title="History of Anglo-Saxon England">early medieval England</a>, which has become the <a href="/wiki/World_language" title="World language">leading language</a> of international discourse in the 21st century.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEThe_Routes_of_English_3-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEThe_Routes_of_English-3">[3]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2003a6_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2003a6-4">[4]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWardhaugh201055_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWardhaugh201055-5">[5]</a></sup> It is named after the <a href="/wiki/Angles" title="Angles">Angles</a>, one of the ancient <a href="/wiki/Germanic_peoples" title="Germanic peoples">Germanic peoples</a> that migrated to the area of <a href="/wiki/Great_Britain" title="Great Britain">Great Britain</a> that later took their name, <a href="/wiki/England" title="England">England</a>. Both names derive from <a href="/wiki/Anglia_(peninsula)" title="Anglia (peninsula)">Anglia</a>, a peninsula on the <a href="/wiki/Baltic_Sea" title="Baltic Sea">Baltic Sea</a>. English is most closely related to <a href="/wiki/Frisian_languages" title="Frisian languages">Frisian</a> and <a href="/wiki/Low_German" title="Low German">Low Saxon</a>, while its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other <a href="/wiki/Germanic_languages" title="Germanic languages">Germanic languages</a>, particularly <a href="/wiki/Old_Norse" title="Old Norse">Old Norse</a> (a <a href="/wiki/North_Germanic_languages" title="North Germanic languages">North Germanic language</a>), as well as <a href="/wiki/Latin" title="Latin">Latin</a> and <a href="/wiki/French_language" title="French language">French</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Wolff_6-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Wolff-6">[6]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBammesberger199230_7-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBammesberger199230-7">[7]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech200639_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech200639-8">[8]</a></sup>
</p><p>English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a group of West Germanic (<a href="/wiki/North_Sea_Germanic" title="North Sea Germanic">Ingvaeonic</a>) dialects brought to Great Britain by <a href="/wiki/Anglo-Saxons" title="Anglo-Saxons">Anglo-Saxon settlers</a> in the 5th century, are collectively called <a href="/wiki/Old_English" title="Old English">Old English</a>. <a href="/wiki/Middle_English" title="Middle English">Middle English</a> began in the late 11th century with the <a href="/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England" class="mw-redirect" title="Norman conquest of England">Norman conquest of England</a>; this was a period in which English was influenced by <a href="/wiki/Old_French" title="Old French">Old French</a>, in particular through its <a href="/wiki/Old_Norman" title="Old Norman">Old Norman</a> <a href="/wiki/Langues_d%27oil" class="mw-redirect" title="Langues d'oil">dialect</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Ian_Short_2007._p._193_9-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Ian_Short_2007._p._193-9">[9]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2003b30_10-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2003b30-10">[10]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Early_Modern_English" title="Early Modern English">Early Modern English</a> began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the <a href="/wiki/Printing_press" title="Printing press">printing press</a> to <a href="/wiki/London" title="London">London</a>, the printing of the <a href="/wiki/King_James_Bible" class="mw-redirect" title="King James Bible">King James Bible</a> and the start of the <a href="/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift" title="Great Vowel Shift">Great Vowel Shift</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11">[11]</a></sup>
</p><p><a href="/wiki/Modern_English" title="Modern English">Modern English</a> has been spreading around the world since the 17th century by the worldwide influence of the <a href="/wiki/British_Empire" title="British Empire">British Empire</a> and the <a href="/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a>. Through all types of printed and electronic media of these countries, English has become the leading language of international <a href="/wiki/Discourse" title="Discourse">discourse</a> and the <i><a href="/wiki/Lingua_franca" title="Lingua franca">lingua franca</a></i> in many regions and professional contexts such as <a href="/wiki/Science" title="Science">science</a>, <a href="/wiki/Navigation" title="Navigation">navigation</a> and <a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">law</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEThe_Routes_of_English_3-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEThe_Routes_of_English-3">[3]</a></sup> Modern English grammar is the result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European dependent marking pattern, with a rich <a href="/wiki/Inflection" title="Inflection">inflectional</a> <a href="/wiki/Morphology_(linguistics)" title="Morphology (linguistics)">morphology</a> and relatively free word order, to a mostly <a href="/wiki/Analytic_language" title="Analytic language">analytic</a> pattern with little <a href="/wiki/Inflection" title="Inflection">inflection</a>, a fairly fixed <a href="/wiki/Subject%E2%80%93verb%E2%80%93object" title="Subject–verb–object">subject–verb–object word order</a> and a complex <a href="/wiki/Syntax" title="Syntax">syntax</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKönig1994539_12-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKönig1994539-12">[12]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Modern_English" title="Modern English">Modern English</a> relies more on <a href="/wiki/Auxiliary_verb" title="Auxiliary verb">auxiliary verbs</a> and <a href="/wiki/Word_order" title="Word order">word order</a> for the expression of complex <a href="/wiki/Grammatical_tense" title="Grammatical tense">tenses</a>, <a href="/wiki/Grammatical_aspect" title="Grammatical aspect">aspect</a> and <a href="/wiki/Grammatical_mood" title="Grammatical mood">mood</a>, as well as <a href="/wiki/Passive_voice" title="Passive voice">passive constructions</a>, <a href="/wiki/Interrogative" title="Interrogative">interrogatives</a> and some <a href="/wiki/Negation" title="Negation">negation</a>.
</p><p>English is the <a href="/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers" title="List of languages by total number of speakers">largest language by number of speakers</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13">[13]</a></sup> and the <a href="/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers" title="List of languages by number of native speakers">third most-spoken native language</a> in the world, after <a href="/wiki/Standard_Chinese" title="Standard Chinese">Standard Chinese</a> and <a href="/wiki/Spanish_Language" class="mw-redirect" title="Spanish Language">Spanish</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEthnologue2010_14-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEEthnologue2010-14">[14]</a></sup> It is the most widely learned second language and is either the <a href="/wiki/Official_language" title="Official language">official language</a> or one of the official languages in <a href="/wiki/List_of_territorial_entities_where_English_is_an_official_language" class="mw-redirect" title="List of territorial entities where English is an official language">almost 60 sovereign states</a>. There are more people who have learned it as a second language than there are <a href="/wiki/Native_speakers" class="mw-redirect" title="Native speakers">native speakers</a>. As of 2005<sup class="plainlinks noexcerpt noprint asof-tag update" style="display:none;"><a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=English_language&action=edit">[update]</a></sup>, it was estimated that there were over 2 billion speakers of English.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15">[15]</a></sup> English is the majority native language in the <a href="/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a>, the <a href="/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</a>, <a href="/wiki/Canada" title="Canada">Canada</a>, <a href="/wiki/Australia" title="Australia">Australia</a>, <a href="/wiki/New_Zealand" title="New Zealand">New Zealand</a> and <a href="/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland" title="Republic of Ireland">Ireland</a>, an official and the main language of <a href="/wiki/Singapore" title="Singapore">Singapore</a>, and it is widely spoken in some areas of the <a href="/wiki/Caribbean" title="Caribbean">Caribbean</a>, <a href="/wiki/Africa" title="Africa">Africa</a>, <a href="/wiki/South_Asia" title="South Asia">South Asia</a>, <a href="/wiki/Southeast_Asia" title="Southeast Asia">Southeast Asia</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Oceania" title="Oceania">Oceania</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2003b108–109_16-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2003b108–109-16">[16]</a></sup> It is a <a href="/wiki/Official_languages_of_the_United_Nations" title="Official languages of the United Nations">co-official language of the United Nations</a>, <a href="/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Union" title="Languages of the European Union">the European Union</a> and many other world and regional international organisations. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch. English speakers are called "<a href="/wiki/Anglophones" class="mw-redirect" title="Anglophones">Anglophones</a>". There is much variability among the many <a href="/wiki/English_accent" class="mw-redirect" title="English accent">accents</a> and <a href="/wiki/English_dialect" class="mw-redirect" title="English dialect">dialects of English</a> used in different countries and regions—in terms of <a href="/wiki/Phonetics" title="Phonetics">phonetics</a> and <a href="/wiki/Phonology" title="Phonology">phonology</a>, and sometimes also <a href="/wiki/Vocabulary" title="Vocabulary">vocabulary</a>, <a href="/wiki/Idioms" class="mw-redirect" title="Idioms">idioms</a>, <a href="/wiki/Grammar" title="Grammar">grammar</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Spelling" title="Spelling">spelling</a>— but it does not typically prevent understanding by speakers of other <a href="/wiki/Dialect" title="Dialect">dialects</a> and <a href="/wiki/Accent_(sociolinguistics)" title="Accent (sociolinguistics)">accents</a>, although <a href="/wiki/Mutual_unintelligibility" class="mw-redirect" title="Mutual unintelligibility">mutual unintelligibility</a> can occur at extreme ends of the <a href="/wiki/Dialect_continuum" title="Dialect continuum">dialect continuum</a>.
</p>
<div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="display:none" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading">Contents</h2><span class="toctogglespan"><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox"></label></span></div>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="#Classification"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Classification</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="#History"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">History</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3"><a href="#Proto-Germanic_to_Old_English"><span class="tocnumber">2.1</span> <span class="toctext">Proto-Germanic to Old English</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4"><a href="#Middle_English"><span class="tocnumber">2.2</span> <span class="toctext">Middle English</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5"><a href="#Early_Modern_English"><span class="tocnumber">2.3</span> <span class="toctext">Early Modern English</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6"><a href="#Spread_of_Modern_English"><span class="tocnumber">2.4</span> <span class="toctext">Spread of Modern English</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="#Geographical_distribution"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Geographical distribution</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8"><a href="#Three_circles_of_English-speaking_countries"><span class="tocnumber">3.1</span> <span class="toctext">Three circles of English-speaking countries</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9"><a href="#Pluricentric_English"><span class="tocnumber">3.2</span> <span class="toctext">Pluricentric English</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10"><a href="#English_as_a_global_language"><span class="tocnumber">3.3</span> <span class="toctext">English as a global language</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11"><a href="#Phonology"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Phonology</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-12"><a href="#Consonants"><span class="tocnumber">4.1</span> <span class="toctext">Consonants</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-13"><a href="#Vowels"><span class="tocnumber">4.2</span> <span class="toctext">Vowels</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-14"><a href="#Phonotactics"><span class="tocnumber">4.3</span> <span class="toctext">Phonotactics</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-15"><a href="#Stress,_rhythm_and_intonation"><span class="tocnumber">4.4</span> <span class="toctext">Stress, rhythm and intonation</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-16"><a href="#Regional_variation"><span class="tocnumber">4.5</span> <span class="toctext">Regional variation</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-17"><a href="#Grammar"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Grammar</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-18"><a href="#Nouns_and_noun_phrases"><span class="tocnumber">5.1</span> <span class="toctext">Nouns and noun phrases</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-19"><a href="#Adjectives"><span class="tocnumber">5.1.1</span> <span class="toctext">Adjectives</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-20"><a href="#Pronouns,_case,_and_person"><span class="tocnumber">5.1.2</span> <span class="toctext">Pronouns, case, and person</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-21"><a href="#Prepositions"><span class="tocnumber">5.1.3</span> <span class="toctext">Prepositions</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-22"><a href="#Verbs_and_verb_phrases"><span class="tocnumber">5.2</span> <span class="toctext">Verbs and verb phrases</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-23"><a href="#Tense,_aspect_and_mood"><span class="tocnumber">5.2.1</span> <span class="toctext">Tense, aspect and mood</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-24"><a href="#Phrasal_verbs"><span class="tocnumber">5.2.2</span> <span class="toctext">Phrasal verbs</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-25"><a href="#Adverbs"><span class="tocnumber">5.2.3</span> <span class="toctext">Adverbs</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-26"><a href="#Syntax"><span class="tocnumber">5.3</span> <span class="toctext">Syntax</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-27"><a href="#Basic_constituent_order"><span class="tocnumber">5.3.1</span> <span class="toctext">Basic constituent order</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-28"><a href="#Clause_syntax"><span class="tocnumber">5.3.2</span> <span class="toctext">Clause syntax</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-29"><a href="#Auxiliary_verb_constructions"><span class="tocnumber">5.3.3</span> <span class="toctext">Auxiliary verb constructions</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-30"><a href="#Questions"><span class="tocnumber">5.3.4</span> <span class="toctext">Questions</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-31"><a href="#Discourse_level_syntax"><span class="tocnumber">5.3.5</span> <span class="toctext">Discourse level syntax</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-32"><a href="#Vocabulary"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">Vocabulary</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-33"><a href="#Word_formation_processes"><span class="tocnumber">6.1</span> <span class="toctext">Word formation processes</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-34"><a href="#Word_origins"><span class="tocnumber">6.2</span> <span class="toctext">Word origins</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-35"><a href="#English_loanwords_and_calques_in_other_languages"><span class="tocnumber">6.3</span> <span class="toctext">English loanwords and calques in other languages</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-36"><a href="#Writing_system"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">Writing system</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-37"><a href="#Dialects,_accents,_and_varieties"><span class="tocnumber">8</span> <span class="toctext">Dialects, accents, and varieties</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-38"><a href="#Britain_and_Ireland"><span class="tocnumber">8.1</span> <span class="toctext">Britain and Ireland</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-39"><a href="#North_America"><span class="tocnumber">8.2</span> <span class="toctext">North America</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-40"><a href="#Australia_and_New_Zealand"><span class="tocnumber">8.3</span> <span class="toctext">Australia and New Zealand</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-41"><a href="#Singapore"><span class="tocnumber">8.4</span> <span class="toctext">Singapore</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-42"><a href="#Philippines"><span class="tocnumber">8.5</span> <span class="toctext">Philippines</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-43"><a href="#Africa,_the_Caribbean,_and_South_Asia"><span class="tocnumber">8.6</span> <span class="toctext">Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-44"><a href="#See_also"><span class="tocnumber">9</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-45"><a href="#References"><span class="tocnumber">10</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-46"><a href="#Bibliography"><span class="tocnumber">11</span> <span class="toctext">Bibliography</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-47"><a href="#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">12</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Classification">Classification</span></h2>
<div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:222px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Europe_germanic-languages_2.PNG" class="image"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Europe_germanic-languages_2.PNG/220px-Europe_germanic-languages_2.PNG" decoding="async" width="220" height="239" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Europe_germanic-languages_2.PNG/330px-Europe_germanic-languages_2.PNG 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Europe_germanic-languages_2.PNG/440px-Europe_germanic-languages_2.PNG 2x" data-file-width="1062" data-file-height="1156" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Europe_germanic-languages_2.PNG" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div><b><a href="/wiki/Anglic_languages" class="mw-redirect" title="Anglic languages">Anglic languages</a></b> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#FFA500; color:black;"> </span> English</div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#FF8C00; color:black;"> </span> <a href="/wiki/Scots_language" title="Scots language">Scots</a></div> <b><a href="/wiki/Anglo-Frisian_languages" title="Anglo-Frisian languages">Anglo-Frisian languages</a></b><br /> Anglic and <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#FFD700; color:black;"> </span> <a href="/wiki/Frisian_languages" title="Frisian languages">Frisian</a> (<a href="/wiki/West_Frisian_language" title="West Frisian language">West</a>, <a href="/wiki/North_Frisian_language" title="North Frisian language">North</a>, <a href="/wiki/Saterland_Frisian_language" title="Saterland Frisian language">Saterland</a>)</div> <b><a href="/wiki/North_Sea_Germanic_languages" class="mw-redirect" title="North Sea Germanic languages">North Sea Germanic languages</a></b> Anglo-Frisian and <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#7FFF00; color:black;"> </span> <a href="/wiki/Low_German" title="Low German">Low German/Low Saxon</a></div> <b><a href="/wiki/West_Germanic_languages" title="West Germanic languages">West Germanic languages</a></b><br /> North Sea Germanic and <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#FFFF00; color:black;"> </span> <a href="/wiki/Dutch_language" title="Dutch language">Dutch</a>; in Africa: <a href="/wiki/Afrikaans" title="Afrikaans">Afrikaans</a></div> ...... <a href="/wiki/German_language" title="German language">German</a> (<a href="/wiki/High_German" class="mw-redirect" title="High German">High</a>): <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#00FF00; color:black;"> </span> <a href="/wiki/Central_German" title="Central German">Central</a>; in <a href="/wiki/Luxembourg" title="Luxembourg">Lux.</a>: <a href="/wiki/Luxembourgish" title="Luxembourgish">Luxembourgish</a></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#008000; color:white;"> </span> <a href="/wiki/Upper_German" title="Upper German">Upper</a></div> ...... <a href="/wiki/Yiddish" title="Yiddish">Yiddish</a></div></div></div>
<div class="thumb tleft"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:252px;"><a href="/wiki/File:West_Germanic_languages_(simplified).svg" class="image"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/West_Germanic_languages_%28simplified%29.svg/250px-West_Germanic_languages_%28simplified%29.svg.png" decoding="async" width="250" height="115" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/West_Germanic_languages_%28simplified%29.svg/375px-West_Germanic_languages_%28simplified%29.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/West_Germanic_languages_%28simplified%29.svg/500px-West_Germanic_languages_%28simplified%29.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="2447" data-file-height="1130" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:West_Germanic_languages_(simplified).svg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>The <a href="/wiki/West_Germanic_languages" title="West Germanic languages">West Germanic languages</a></div></div></div>
<p>English is an <a href="/wiki/Indo-European_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Indo-European language">Indo-European language</a> and belongs to the <a href="/wiki/West_Germanic" class="mw-redirect" title="West Germanic">West Germanic</a> group of the <a href="/wiki/Germanic_languages" title="Germanic languages">Germanic languages</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBammesberger199229–30_17-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBammesberger199229–30-17">[17]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Old_English" title="Old English">Old English</a> <a href="/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_settlement_of_Britain" title="Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain">originated</a> from a Germanic tribal and <a href="/wiki/Dialect_continuum" title="Dialect continuum">linguistic continuum</a> along the <a href="/wiki/Frisia" title="Frisia">Frisian</a> <a href="/wiki/North_Sea" title="North Sea">North Sea</a> coast, whose languages gradually evolved into the <a href="/wiki/Anglic_languages" class="mw-redirect" title="Anglic languages">Anglic languages</a> in the <a href="/wiki/British_Isles" title="British Isles">British Isles</a>, and into the <a href="/wiki/Frisian_languages" title="Frisian languages">Frisian languages</a> and <a href="/wiki/Low_German" title="Low German">Low German/Low Saxon</a> on the continent. The Frisian languages, which together with the Anglic languages form the <a href="/wiki/Anglo-Frisian_languages" title="Anglo-Frisian languages">Anglo-Frisian languages</a>, are the closest living relatives of English. Low German/Low Saxon is also closely related, and sometimes English, the Frisian languages, and <a href="/wiki/Low_German" title="Low German">Low German</a> are grouped together as the <a href="/wiki/Ingvaeonic" class="mw-redirect" title="Ingvaeonic">Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic) languages</a>, though this grouping remains debated.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBammesberger199230_7-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBammesberger199230-7">[7]</a></sup> Old English evolved into <a href="/wiki/Middle_English" title="Middle English">Middle English</a>, which in turn evolved into Modern English.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERobinson1992_18-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERobinson1992-18">[18]</a></sup> Particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other Anglic languages, including <a href="/wiki/Scots_language" title="Scots language">Scots</a><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERomaine198256–65_19-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERomaine198256–65-19">[19]</a></sup> and the extinct <a href="/wiki/Fingallian" title="Fingallian">Fingallian</a> and <a href="/wiki/Forth_and_Bargy_dialect" title="Forth and Bargy dialect">Forth and Bargy (Yola)</a> dialects of <a href="/wiki/Ireland" title="Ireland">Ireland</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBarry198286–87_20-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBarry198286–87-20">[20]</a></sup>
</p><p>Like <a href="/wiki/Icelandic_language" title="Icelandic language">Icelandic</a> and <a href="/wiki/Faroese_language" title="Faroese language">Faroese</a>, the development of English in the <a href="/wiki/British_Isles" title="British Isles">British Isles</a> isolated it from the continental Germanic languages and influences, and it has since diverged considerably. English is not <a href="/wiki/Mutual_intelligibility" title="Mutual intelligibility">mutually intelligible</a> with any continental Germanic language, differing in <a href="/wiki/Lexis_(linguistics)" title="Lexis (linguistics)">vocabulary</a>, <a href="/wiki/Syntax" title="Syntax">syntax</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Phonology" title="Phonology">phonology</a>, although some of these, such as Dutch or Frisian, do show strong affinities with English, especially with its earlier stages.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHarbert2007_21-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHarbert2007-21">[21]</a></sup>
</p><p>Unlike Icelandic and Faroese, which were isolated, the development of English was influenced by a long series of invasions of the British Isles by other peoples and languages, particularly <a href="/wiki/Old_Norse" title="Old Norse">Old Norse</a> and <a href="/wiki/Norman_language" title="Norman language">Norman French</a>. These left a profound mark of their own on the language, so that English shows some similarities in vocabulary and grammar with many languages outside its linguistic <a href="/wiki/Clades" class="mw-redirect" title="Clades">clades</a>—but it is not mutually intelligible with any of those languages either. Some scholars have argued that English can be considered a <a href="/wiki/Mixed_language" title="Mixed language">mixed language</a> or a <a href="/wiki/Creole_language" title="Creole language">creole</a>—a theory called the <a href="/wiki/Middle_English_creole_hypothesis" title="Middle English creole hypothesis">Middle English creole hypothesis</a>. Although the great influence of these languages on the vocabulary and grammar of Modern English is widely acknowledged, most specialists in language contact do not consider English to be a true mixed language.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEThomasonKaufman1988264–265_22-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEThomasonKaufman1988264–265-22">[22]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWatts2011Chapter_4_23-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWatts2011Chapter_4-23">[23]</a></sup>
</p><p>English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares <a href="/wiki/Language_change" title="Language change">innovations</a> with other Germanic languages such as <a href="/wiki/Dutch_language" title="Dutch language">Dutch</a>, <a href="/wiki/German_language" title="German language">German</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Swedish_language" title="Swedish language">Swedish</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDurrell2006_24-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDurrell2006-24">[24]</a></sup> These shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor called <a href="/wiki/Proto-Germanic" class="mw-redirect" title="Proto-Germanic">Proto-Germanic</a>. Some shared features of Germanic languages include the division of verbs into <a href="/wiki/Germanic_strong_verb" title="Germanic strong verb">strong</a> and <a href="/wiki/Germanic_weak_verb" title="Germanic weak verb">weak</a> classes, the use of <a href="/wiki/Modal_verb" title="Modal verb">modal verbs</a>, and the sound changes affecting <a href="/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language" title="Proto-Indo-European language">Proto-Indo-European</a> consonants, known as <a href="/wiki/Grimm%27s_law" title="Grimm's law">Grimm's</a> and <a href="/wiki/Verner%27s_law" title="Verner's law">Verner's laws</a>. English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the <a href="/wiki/Palatalization_(sound_change)" title="Palatalization (sound change)">palatalisation</a> of consonants that were velar consonants in <a href="/wiki/Proto-Germanic_language" title="Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic</a> (see <a href="/wiki/Phonological_history_of_Old_English#Palatalization" title="Phonological history of Old English">Phonological history of Old English § Palatalization</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKönigvan_der_Auwera1994_25-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKönigvan_der_Auwera1994-25">[25]</a></sup>
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="History">History</span></h2>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/History_of_English" title="History of English">History of English</a></div>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Proto-Germanic_to_Old_English">Proto-Germanic to Old English</span></h3>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/Old_English" title="Old English">Old English</a></div>
<div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:222px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg/220px-Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="369" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg/330px-Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg/440px-Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg 2x" data-file-width="4098" data-file-height="6868" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>The opening to the Old English epic poem <i><a href="/wiki/Beowulf" title="Beowulf">Beowulf</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/Manuscript" title="Manuscript">handwritten</a> in <a href="/wiki/Half-uncial" class="mw-redirect" title="Half-uncial">half-uncial script</a>:<br /><i lang="ang" title="Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text">Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon...</i><br />"Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."</div></div></div>
<p>The earliest form of English is called <a href="/wiki/Old_English" title="Old English">Old English</a> or <a href="/wiki/Anglo-Saxon" class="mw-redirect" title="Anglo-Saxon">Anglo-Saxon</a> (c. year 550–1066). Old English developed from a set of <a href="/wiki/West_Germanic" class="mw-redirect" title="West Germanic">West Germanic</a> dialects, often grouped as <a href="/wiki/Anglo-Frisian" class="mw-redirect" title="Anglo-Frisian">Anglo-Frisian</a> or <a href="/wiki/North_Sea_Germanic" title="North Sea Germanic">North Sea Germanic</a>, and originally spoken along the coasts of <a href="/wiki/Frisia" title="Frisia">Frisia</a>, <a href="/wiki/Lower_Saxony" title="Lower Saxony">Lower Saxony</a> and southern <a href="/wiki/Jutland" title="Jutland">Jutland</a> by Germanic peoples known to the historical record as the <a href="/wiki/Angles" title="Angles">Angles</a>, <a href="/wiki/Saxons" title="Saxons">Saxons</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Jutes" title="Jutes">Jutes</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-26">[26]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-OriginOfAngloSaxon_27-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-OriginOfAngloSaxon-27">[27]</a></sup> From the 5th century, the Anglo-Saxons <a href="/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_settlement_of_Britain" title="Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain">settled Britain</a> as <a href="/wiki/End_of_Roman_rule_in_Britain" title="End of Roman rule in Britain">the Roman economy and administration collapsed</a>. By the 7th century, the Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons <a href="/wiki/Celtic_language-death_in_England" class="mw-redirect" title="Celtic language-death in England">became dominant in Britain</a>, replacing the languages of <a href="/wiki/Roman_Britain" title="Roman Britain">Roman Britain</a> (43–409): <a href="/wiki/Common_Brittonic" title="Common Brittonic">Common Brittonic</a>, a <a href="/wiki/Celtic_languages" title="Celtic languages">Celtic language</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Latin" title="Latin">Latin</a>, brought to Britain by the <a href="/wiki/Roman_occupation_of_Britain" class="mw-redirect" title="Roman occupation of Britain">Roman occupation</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECollingwoodMyres1936_28-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECollingwoodMyres1936-28">[28]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGraddolLeithSwann_et_al.2007_29-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGraddolLeithSwann_et_al.2007-29">[29]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBlenchSpriggs1999_30-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBlenchSpriggs1999-30">[30]</a></sup> <i>England</i> and <i>English</i> (originally <i lang="ang" title="Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text">Ænglaland</i> and <i lang="ang" title="Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text">Ænglisc</i>) are named after the Angles.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBosworthToller1921_31-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBosworthToller1921-31">[31]</a></sup>
</p><p>Old English was divided into four dialects: the Anglian dialects (<a href="/wiki/Mercian_dialect" title="Mercian dialect">Mercian</a> and <a href="/wiki/Northumbrian_dialect" title="Northumbrian dialect">Northumbrian</a>) and the Saxon dialects, <a href="/wiki/Kentish_dialect_(Old_English)" class="mw-redirect" title="Kentish dialect (Old English)">Kentish</a> and <a href="/wiki/West_Saxon_dialect" title="West Saxon dialect">West Saxon</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECampbell19594_32-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECampbell19594-32">[32]</a></sup> Through the educational reforms of <a href="/wiki/Alfred_the_Great" title="Alfred the Great">King Alfred</a> in the 9th century and the influence of the kingdom of <a href="/wiki/Wessex" title="Wessex">Wessex</a>, the West Saxon dialect became the <a href="/wiki/Standard_language" title="Standard language">standard written variety</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEToon1992Chapter:_Old_English_Dialects_33-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEToon1992Chapter:_Old_English_Dialects-33">[33]</a></sup> The <a href="/wiki/Epic_poetry" title="Epic poetry">epic poem</a> <i><a href="/wiki/Beowulf" title="Beowulf">Beowulf</a></i> is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, <i><a href="/wiki/C%C3%A6dmon%27s_Hymn" title="Cædmon's Hymn">Cædmon's Hymn</a></i>, is written in Northumbrian.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDonoghue2008_34-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDonoghue2008-34">[34]</a></sup> Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the <a href="/wiki/Scots_language" title="Scots language">Scots language</a> developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the early period of Old English were written using a <a href="/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_runes" title="Anglo-Saxon runes">runic script</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGneuss201323_35-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGneuss201323-35">[35]</a></sup> By the 6th century, a <a href="/wiki/Old_English_Latin_alphabet" title="Old English Latin alphabet">Latin alphabet</a> was adopted, written with <a href="/wiki/Half-uncial" class="mw-redirect" title="Half-uncial">half-uncial</a> <a href="/wiki/Letterform" title="Letterform">letterforms</a>. It included the runic letters <i><a href="/wiki/Wynn" title="Wynn">wynn</a></i> ⟨<i lang="ang" title="Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text">ƿ</i>⟩ and <i><a href="/wiki/Thorn_(letter)" title="Thorn (letter)">thorn</a></i> ⟨<i lang="ang" title="Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text">þ</i>⟩, and the modified Latin letters <i><a href="/wiki/Eth" title="Eth">eth</a></i> ⟨<i lang="ang" title="Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text">ð</i>⟩, and <i><a href="/wiki/%C3%86" title="Æ">ash</a></i> ⟨<i lang="ang" title="Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text">æ</i>⟩.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGneuss201323_35-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGneuss201323-35">[35]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDenisonHogg200630–31_36-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDenisonHogg200630–31-36">[36]</a></sup>
</p><p>Old English is essentially a distinct language from Modern English and is virtually impossible for 21st-century unstudied English-speakers to understand. Its grammar was similar to that of modern <a href="/wiki/German_language" title="German language">German</a>, and its closest relative is <a href="/wiki/Old_Frisian" title="Old Frisian">Old Frisian</a>. <a href="/wiki/Old_English_grammar" title="Old English grammar">Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs</a> had many more <a href="/wiki/Inflectional_morphology" class="mw-redirect" title="Inflectional morphology">inflectional endings and forms</a>, and word order was <a href="/wiki/Pragmatic_word_order" class="mw-redirect" title="Pragmatic word order">much freer</a> than in Modern English. Modern English has <a href="/wiki/Grammatical_case" title="Grammatical case">case forms</a> in pronouns (<i>he</i>, <i>him</i>, <i>his</i>) and has a few verb inflections (<i>speak</i>, <i>speaks</i>, <i>speaking</i>, <i>spoke</i>, <i>spoken</i>), but Old English had case endings in nouns as well, and verbs had more <a href="/wiki/Grammatical_person" title="Grammatical person">person</a> and <a href="/wiki/Grammatical_number" title="Grammatical number">number</a> endings.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHogg1992Chapter_3._Phonology_and_Morphology_37-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHogg1992Chapter_3._Phonology_and_Morphology-37">[37]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESmith2009_38-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESmith2009-38">[38]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETraskTrask2010_39-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETraskTrask2010-39">[39]</a></sup>
</p><p>The translation of <a href="/wiki/Gospel_of_Matthew" title="Gospel of Matthew">Matthew</a> 8:20 from 1000 shows examples of case endings (<a href="/wiki/Nominative_case" title="Nominative case">nominative</a> plural, <a href="/wiki/Accusative_case" title="Accusative case">accusative</a> plural, <a href="/wiki/Genitive_case" title="Genitive case">genitive</a> singular) and a verb ending (<a href="/wiki/Present_tense" title="Present tense">present</a> plural):
</p>
<ul><li><i lang="ang" title="Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text">Foxas habbað holu and heofonan fuglas nest</i></li>
<li>Fox-as habb-að hol-u and heofon-an fugl-as nest-∅</li>
<li>fox-<span class="smallcaps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;">NOM.PL</span></span> have-<span class="smallcaps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;">PRS.PL</span></span> hole-<span class="smallcaps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;">ACC.PL</span></span> and heaven-<span class="smallcaps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;">GEN.SG</span></span> bird-<span class="smallcaps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;">NOM.PL</span></span> nest-<span class="smallcaps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;">ACC.PL</span></span></li>
<li>"Foxes have holes and the birds of heaven nests"<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELass200646–47_40-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELass200646–47-40">[40]</a></sup></li></ul>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Middle_English">Middle English</span></h3>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main articles: <a href="/wiki/Middle_English" title="Middle English">Middle English</a> and <a href="/wiki/Influence_of_French_on_English" title="Influence of French on English">Influence of French on English</a></div>
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<div class="quotebox-quote left-aligned" style=""><i lang="enm" title="Middle English (1100-1500)-language text">Englischmen þeyz hy hadde fram þe bygynnyng þre manner speche, Souþeron, Northeron, and Myddel speche in þe myddel of þe lond, ... Noþeles by comyxstion and mellyng, furst wiþ Danes, and afterward wiþ Normans, in menye þe contray longage ys asperyed, and som vseþ strange wlaffyng, chyteryng, harryng, and garryng grisbytting.</i><br /><br />Although, from the beginning, Englishmen had three manners of speaking, southern, northern and midlands speech in the middle of the country, ... Nevertheless, through intermingling and mixing, first with Danes and then with Normans, amongst many the country language has arisen, and some use strange stammering, chattering, snarling, and grating gnashing.</div>
<p><cite class="right-aligned" style=""><a href="/wiki/John_of_Trevisa" class="mw-redirect" title="John of Trevisa">John of Trevisa</a>, ca. 1385<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHogg2006360–361_41-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHogg2006360–361-41">[41]</a></sup></cite>
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<p>From the 8th to the 12th century, Old English gradually transformed through <a href="/wiki/Language_contact" title="Language contact">language contact</a> into <a href="/wiki/Middle_English" title="Middle English">Middle English</a>. Middle English is often arbitrarily defined as beginning with the <a href="/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England" class="mw-redirect" title="Norman conquest of England">conquest of England</a> by <a href="/wiki/William_the_Conqueror" title="William the Conqueror">William the Conqueror</a> in 1066, but it developed further in the period from 1200 to 1450.
</p><p>First, the waves of Norse colonisation of northern parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries put Old English into intense contact with <a href="/wiki/Old_Norse" title="Old Norse">Old Norse</a>, a <a href="/wiki/North_Germanic" class="mw-redirect" title="North Germanic">North Germanic</a> language. Norse influence was strongest in the north-eastern varieties of Old English spoken in the <a href="/wiki/Danelaw" title="Danelaw">Danelaw</a> area around York, which was the centre of Norse colonisation; today these features are still particularly present in <a href="/wiki/Scots_language" title="Scots language">Scots</a> and <a href="/wiki/Northern_England_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Northern England English">Northern English</a>. However the centre of norsified English seems to have been in <a href="/wiki/The_Midlands" class="mw-redirect" title="The Midlands">the Midlands</a> around <a href="/wiki/Kingdom_of_Lindsey" title="Kingdom of Lindsey">Lindsey</a>, and after 920 CE when Lindsey was reincorporated into the Anglo-Saxon polity, Norse features spread from there into English varieties that had not been in direct contact with Norse speakers. An element of Norse influence that persists in all English varieties today is the group of pronouns beginning with <i>th-</i> (<i>they, them, their</i>) which replaced the Anglo-Saxon pronouns with <i lang="ang" title="Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text">h-</i> (<i lang="ang" title="Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text">hie, him, hera</i>).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEThomasonKaufman1988284–290_42-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEThomasonKaufman1988284–290-42">[42]</a></sup>
</p><p>With the <a href="/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England" class="mw-redirect" title="Norman conquest of England">Norman conquest of England</a> in 1066, the now norsified Old English language was subject to contact with <a href="/wiki/Old_French" title="Old French">Old French</a>, in particular with the <a href="/wiki/Old_Norman" title="Old Norman">Old Norman</a> dialect. The <a href="/wiki/Norman_language" title="Norman language">Norman language</a> in England eventually developed into <a href="/wiki/Anglo-Norman_language" title="Anglo-Norman language">Anglo-Norman</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Ian_Short_2007._p._193_9-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Ian_Short_2007._p._193-9">[9]</a></sup> Because Norman was spoken primarily by the elites and nobles, while the lower classes continued speaking Anglo-Saxon (English), the main influence of Norman was the introduction of a wide range of <a href="/wiki/Loanwords" class="mw-redirect" title="Loanwords">loanwords</a> related to politics, legislation and prestigious social domains.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech200639_8-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech200639-8">[8]</a></sup> Middle English also greatly simplified the inflectional system, probably in order to reconcile Old Norse and Old English, which were inflectionally different but morphologically similar. The distinction between nominative and accusative cases was lost except in personal pronouns, the instrumental case was dropped, and the use of the genitive case was limited to indicating <a href="/wiki/Possession_(linguistics)" title="Possession (linguistics)">possession</a>. The inflectional system regularised many irregular inflectional forms,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELass1992_43-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELass1992-43">[43]</a></sup> and gradually simplified the system of agreement, making word order less flexible.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFischervan_der_Wurff2006111–13_44-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEFischervan_der_Wurff2006111–13-44">[44]</a></sup> In the <a href="/wiki/Wycliffe_Bible" class="mw-redirect" title="Wycliffe Bible">Wycliffe Bible</a> of the 1380s, the verse Matthew 8:20 was written: <i lang="enm" title="Middle English (1100-1500)-language text">Foxis han dennes, and briddis of heuene han nestis</i><sup id="cite_ref-45" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-45">[45]</a></sup> Here the plural suffix <i lang="enm" title="Middle English (1100-1500)-language text">-n</i> on the verb <i>have</i> is still retained, but none of the case endings on the nouns are present. By the 12th century Middle English was fully developed, integrating both Norse and French features; it continued to be spoken until the transition to early Modern English around 1500. Middle English literature includes <a href="/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucer" title="Geoffrey Chaucer">Geoffrey Chaucer</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales" title="The Canterbury Tales">The Canterbury Tales</a></i>, and <a href="/wiki/Thomas_Malory" title="Thomas Malory">Malory's</a> <i><a href="/wiki/Le_Morte_d%27Arthur" title="Le Morte d'Arthur">Le Morte d'Arthur</a></i>. In the Middle English period, the use of regional dialects in writing proliferated, and dialect traits were even used for effect by authors such as Chaucer.<sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-46">[46]</a></sup>
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<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Early_Modern_English">Early Modern English</span></h3>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/Early_Modern_English" title="Early Modern English">Early Modern English</a></div>
<div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:302px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Great_Vowel_Shift2a.svg" class="image"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Great_Vowel_Shift2a.svg/300px-Great_Vowel_Shift2a.svg.png" decoding="async" width="300" height="169" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Great_Vowel_Shift2a.svg/450px-Great_Vowel_Shift2a.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Great_Vowel_Shift2a.svg/600px-Great_Vowel_Shift2a.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="560" data-file-height="315" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Great_Vowel_Shift2a.svg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>Graphic representation of the <a href="/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift" title="Great Vowel Shift">Great Vowel Shift</a>, showing how the pronunciation of the long vowels gradually shifted, with the high vowels i: and u: breaking into diphthongs and the lower vowels each shifting their pronunciation up one level</div></div></div>
<p>The next period in the history of English was Early Modern English (1500–1700). Early Modern English was characterised by the <a href="/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift" title="Great Vowel Shift">Great Vowel Shift</a> (1350–1700), inflectional simplification, and linguistic standardisation.
</p><p>The Great Vowel Shift affected the stressed long vowels of Middle English. It was a <a href="/wiki/Chain_shift" title="Chain shift">chain shift</a>, meaning that each shift triggered a subsequent shift in the vowel system. <a href="/wiki/Mid_vowel" title="Mid vowel">Mid</a> and <a href="/wiki/Open_vowel" title="Open vowel">open vowels</a> were <a href="/wiki/Raising_(phonology)" class="mw-redirect" title="Raising (phonology)">raised</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Close_vowel" title="Close vowel">close vowels</a> were <a href="/wiki/Vowel_breaking" title="Vowel breaking">broken</a> into <a href="/wiki/Diphthong" title="Diphthong">diphthongs</a>. For example, the word <i>bite</i> was originally pronounced as the word <i>beet</i> is today, and the second vowel in the word <i>about</i> was pronounced as the word <i>boot</i> is today. The Great Vowel Shift explains many irregularities in spelling since English retains many spellings from Middle English, and it also explains why English vowel letters have very different pronunciations from the same letters in other languages.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELass2000_47-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELass2000-47">[47]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGörlach199166–70_48-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGörlach199166–70-48">[48]</a></sup>
</p><p>English began to rise in prestige, relative to Norman French, during the reign of <a href="/wiki/Henry_V_of_England" title="Henry V of England">Henry V</a>. Around 1430, the <a href="/wiki/Court_of_Chancery" title="Court of Chancery">Court of Chancery</a> in <a href="/wiki/Westminster" title="Westminster">Westminster</a> began using English in its <a href="/wiki/Writ" title="Writ">official documents</a>, and a new standard form of Middle English, known as <a href="/wiki/Chancery_Standard" class="mw-redirect" title="Chancery Standard">Chancery Standard</a>, developed from the dialects of London and the <a href="/wiki/East_Midlands_English" title="East Midlands English">East Midlands</a>. In 1476, <a href="/wiki/William_Caxton" title="William Caxton">William Caxton</a> introduced the <a href="/wiki/Printing_press" title="Printing press">printing press</a> to England and began publishing the first printed books in London, expanding the influence of this form of English.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENevalainenTieken-Boon_van_Ostade2006274–79_49-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENevalainenTieken-Boon_van_Ostade2006274–79-49">[49]</a></sup> Literature from the Early Modern period includes the works of <a href="/wiki/William_Shakespeare" title="William Shakespeare">William Shakespeare</a> and the <a href="/wiki/King_James_Version" title="King James Version">translation of the Bible</a> commissioned by <a href="/wiki/James_VI_and_I" title="James VI and I">King James I</a>. Even after the vowel shift the language still sounded different from Modern English: for example, the <a href="/wiki/Consonant_cluster" title="Consonant cluster">consonant clusters</a> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/kn ɡn sw/</span> in <i>knight</i>, <i>gnat</i>, and <i>sword</i> were still pronounced. Many of the grammatical features that a modern reader of Shakespeare might find quaint or archaic represent the distinct characteristics of Early Modern English.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECercignani1981_50-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECercignani1981-50">[50]</a></sup>
</p><p>In the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, written in Early Modern English, Matthew 8:20 says, "The Foxes haue holes and the birds of the ayre haue nests:.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELass200646–47_40-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELass200646–47-40">[40]</a></sup> This exemplifies the loss of case and its effects on sentence structure (replacement with subject–verb–object word order, and the use of <i>of</i> instead of the non-possessive genitive), and the introduction of loanwords from French (<i>ayre</i>) and word replacements (<i>bird</i> originally meaning "nestling" had replaced OE <i>fugol</i>).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELass200646–47_40-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELass200646–47-40">[40]</a></sup>
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<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Spread_of_Modern_English">Spread of Modern English</span></h3>
<p>By the late 18th century, the <a href="/wiki/British_Empire" title="British Empire">British Empire</a> had spread English through its colonies and geopolitical dominance. Commerce, science and technology, diplomacy, art, and formal education all contributed to English becoming the first truly global language. English also facilitated worldwide international communication.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHow_English_evolved_into_a_global_language2010_51-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHow_English_evolved_into_a_global_language2010-51">[51]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEThe_Routes_of_English_3-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEThe_Routes_of_English-3">[3]</a></sup> England continued to form new colonies, and these later developed their own norms for speech and writing. English was adopted in parts of North America, parts of Africa, Australasia, and many other regions. When they obtained political independence, some of the newly independent nations that had multiple <a href="/wiki/Indigenous_language" title="Indigenous language">indigenous languages</a> opted to continue using English as the official language to avoid the political and other difficulties inherent in promoting any one indigenous language above the others.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERomaine2006586_52-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERomaine2006586-52">[52]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMufwene2006614_53-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMufwene2006614-53">[53]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENorthrup201381–86_54-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENorthrup201381–86-54">[54]</a></sup> In the 20th century the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States and its status as a <a href="/wiki/Superpower" title="Superpower">superpower</a> following the Second World War has, along with worldwide broadcasting in English by the <a href="/wiki/BBC" title="BBC">BBC</a><sup id="cite_ref-55" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-55">[55]</a></sup> and other broadcasters, caused the language to spread across the planet much faster.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGraddol2006_56-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGraddol2006-56">[56]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2003a_57-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2003a-57">[57]</a></sup> In the 21st century, English is more widely spoken and written than any language has ever been.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMcCrumMacNeilCran20039–10_58-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMcCrumMacNeilCran20039–10-58">[58]</a></sup>
</p><p>As Modern English developed, explicit norms for standard usage were published, and spread through official media such as public education and state-sponsored publications. In 1755 <a href="/wiki/Samuel_Johnson" title="Samuel Johnson">Samuel Johnson</a> published his <i><a href="/wiki/A_Dictionary_of_the_English_Language" title="A Dictionary of the English Language">A Dictionary of the English Language</a></i> which introduced standard spellings of words and usage norms. In 1828, <a href="/wiki/Noah_Webster" title="Noah Webster">Noah Webster</a> published the <i><a href="/wiki/Webster%27s_Dictionary" title="Webster's Dictionary">American Dictionary of the English language</a></i> to try to establish a norm for speaking and writing American English that was independent of the British standard. Within Britain, non-standard or lower class dialect features were increasingly stigmatised, leading to the quick spread of the prestige varieties among the middle classes.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERomaine19991–56_59-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERomaine19991–56-59">[59]</a></sup>
</p><p>In modern English, the loss of grammatical case is almost complete (it is now only found in pronouns, such as <i>he</i> and <i>him</i>, <i>she</i> and <i>her</i>, <i>who</i> and <i>whom</i>), and SVO word order is mostly fixed.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERomaine19991–56_59-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERomaine19991–56-59">[59]</a></sup> Some changes, such as the use of <a href="/wiki/Do-support" title="Do-support">do-support</a> have become universalised. (Earlier English did not use the word "do" as a general auxiliary as Modern English does; at first it was only used in question constructions, and even then was not obligatory.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERomaine19992_60-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERomaine19992-60">[60]</a></sup> Now, do-support with the verb <i>have</i> is becoming increasingly standardised.) The use of progressive forms in <i>-ing</i>, appears to be spreading to new constructions, and forms such as <i>had been being built</i> are becoming more common. Regularisation of irregular forms also slowly continues (e.g. <i>dreamed</i> instead of <i>dreamt</i>), and analytical alternatives to inflectional forms are becoming more common (e.g. <i>more polite</i> instead of <i>politer</i>). British English is also undergoing change under the influence of American English, fuelled by the strong presence of American English in the media and the prestige associated with the US as a world power.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELeechHundtMairSmith200918–19_61-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELeechHundtMairSmith200918–19-61">[61]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMairLeech2006_62-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMairLeech2006-62">[62]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMair2006_63-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMair2006-63">[63]</a></sup>
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<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Geographical_distribution">Geographical distribution</span></h2>
<p><span class="anchor" id="Geographic_distribution"></span>
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<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="/wiki/List_of_territorial_entities_where_English_is_an_official_language" class="mw-redirect" title="List of territorial entities where English is an official language">List of territorial entities where English is an official language</a>, <a href="/wiki/Geographical_distribution_of_English_speakers" title="Geographical distribution of English speakers">Geographical distribution of English speakers</a>, <a href="/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population" title="List of countries by English-speaking population">List of countries by English-speaking population</a>, and <a href="/wiki/English-speaking_world" title="English-speaking world">English-speaking world</a></div>
<div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:422px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Percentage_of_English_speakers_by_country_and_dependency_as_of_2014.svg" class="image"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Percentage_of_English_speakers_by_country_and_dependency_as_of_2014.svg/420px-Percentage_of_English_speakers_by_country_and_dependency_as_of_2014.svg.png" decoding="async" width="420" height="213" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Percentage_of_English_speakers_by_country_and_dependency_as_of_2014.svg/630px-Percentage_of_English_speakers_by_country_and_dependency_as_of_2014.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Percentage_of_English_speakers_by_country_and_dependency_as_of_2014.svg/840px-Percentage_of_English_speakers_by_country_and_dependency_as_of_2014.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="260" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Percentage_of_English_speakers_by_country_and_dependency_as_of_2014.svg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>Percentage of English speakers by country and dependency as of 2014. <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="width:100%; background:none;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top"> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#225500; color:white;"> </span> 80–100%</div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#44aa00; color:black;"> </span> 60–80%</div> </td> <td valign="top"> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#66ff00; color:black;"> </span> 40–60%</div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#99ff55; color:black;"> </span> 20–40%</div> </td> <td valign="top"> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#ccffaa; color:black;"> </span> 0.1–20%</div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#c0c0c0; color:black;"> </span> No data</div> </td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div>
<div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:302px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Map_of_English_native_speakers.png" class="image"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Map_of_English_native_speakers.png/300px-Map_of_English_native_speakers.png" decoding="async" width="300" height="144" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Map_of_English_native_speakers.png/450px-Map_of_English_native_speakers.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Map_of_English_native_speakers.png/600px-Map_of_English_native_speakers.png 2x" data-file-width="1280" data-file-height="615" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Map_of_English_native_speakers.png" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>Percentage of English native speakers</div></div></div>
<p>As of 2016<sup class="plainlinks noexcerpt noprint asof-tag update" style="display:none;"><a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=English_language&action=edit">[update]</a></sup>, 400 million people spoke English as their <a href="/wiki/First_language" title="First language">first language</a>, and 1.1 billion spoke it as a secondary language.<sup id="cite_ref-64" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-64">[64]</a></sup> English is the <a href="/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers" title="List of languages by total number of speakers">largest language by number of speakers</a>. English is spoken by communities on every continent and on islands in all the major oceans.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2003b106_65-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2003b106-65">[65]</a></sup>
</p><p>The countries where English is spoken can be grouped into different categories according to how English is used in each country. The "inner circle"<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech20062_66-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech20062-66">[66]</a></sup> countries with many native speakers of English share an international standard of written English and jointly influence speech norms for English around the world. English does not belong to just one country, and it does not belong solely to descendants of English settlers. English is an official language of countries populated by few descendants of native speakers of English. It has also become by far the most important language of international communication when <a href="/wiki/Lingua_franca" title="Lingua franca">people who share no native language meet anywhere in the world</a>.
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<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Three_circles_of_English-speaking_countries">Three circles of English-speaking countries</span></h3>
<p>The Indian linguist <a href="/wiki/Braj_Kachru" title="Braj Kachru">Braj Kachru</a> distinguished countries where English is spoken with a <a href="/wiki/Three_Circles_of_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Three Circles of English">three circles model</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech20062_66-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech20062-66">[66]</a></sup> In his model,
</p>
<ul><li>the "inner circle" countries have large communities of native speakers of English,</li>
<li>"outer circle" countries have small communities of native speakers of English but widespread use of English as a second language in education or broadcasting or for local official purposes, and</li>
<li>"expanding circle" countries are countries where many people learn English as a foreign language.</li></ul>
<p>Kachru based his model on the history of how English spread in different countries, how users acquire English, and the range of uses English has in each country. The three circles change membership over time.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKachru2006196_67-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKachru2006196-67">[67]</a></sup>
</p>
<div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:222px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Kachru%27s_three_circles_of_English.svg" class="image"><img alt="Braj Kachru's Three Circles of English" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Kachru%27s_three_circles_of_English.svg/220px-Kachru%27s_three_circles_of_English.svg.png" decoding="async" width="220" height="220" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Kachru%27s_three_circles_of_English.svg/330px-Kachru%27s_three_circles_of_English.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Kachru%27s_three_circles_of_English.svg/440px-Kachru%27s_three_circles_of_English.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="354" data-file-height="354" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Kachru%27s_three_circles_of_English.svg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>Braj Kachru's <i>Three Circles of English</i></div></div></div>
<p>Countries with large communities of native speakers of English (the inner circle) include Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, where the majority speaks English, and South Africa, where a significant minority speaks English. The countries with the most native English speakers are, in descending order, the <a href="/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a> (at least 231 million),<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERyan2013Table_1_68-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERyan2013Table_1-68">[68]</a></sup> the <a href="/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</a> (60 million),<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEOffice_for_National_Statistics2013Key_Points_69-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEOffice_for_National_Statistics2013Key_Points-69">[69]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENational_Records_of_Scotland2013_70-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENational_Records_of_Scotland2013-70">[70]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENorthern_Ireland_Statistics_and_Research_Agency2012Table_KS207NI:_Main_Language_71-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENorthern_Ireland_Statistics_and_Research_Agency2012Table_KS207NI:_Main_Language-71">[71]</a></sup> Canada (19 million),<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStatistics_Canada2014_72-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStatistics_Canada2014-72">[72]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Australia" title="Australia">Australia</a> (at least 17 million),<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEAustralian_Bureau_of_Statistics2013_73-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEAustralian_Bureau_of_Statistics2013-73">[73]</a></sup> South Africa (4.8 million),<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStatistics_South_Africa2012Table_2.5_Population_by_first_language_spoken_and_province_(number)_74-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStatistics_South_Africa2012Table_2.5_Population_by_first_language_spoken_and_province_(number)-74">[74]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland" title="Republic of Ireland">Ireland</a> (4.2 million), and New Zealand (3.7 million).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStatistics_New_Zealand2014_75-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStatistics_New_Zealand2014-75">[75]</a></sup> In these countries, children of native speakers learn English from their parents, and local people who speak other languages and new immigrants learn English to communicate in their neighbourhoods and workplaces.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBao2006377_76-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBao2006377-76">[76]</a></sup> The inner-circle countries provide the base from which English spreads to other countries in the world.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKachru2006196_67-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKachru2006196-67">[67]</a></sup>
</p><p>Estimates of the numbers of <a href="/wiki/Second_language" title="Second language">second language</a> and foreign-language English speakers vary greatly from 470 million to more than 1 billion, depending on how proficiency is defined.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2003b108–109_16-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2003b108–109-16">[16]</a></sup> Linguist <a href="/wiki/David_Crystal" title="David Crystal">David Crystal</a> estimates that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2003a69_77-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2003a69-77">[77]</a></sup> In Kachru's three-circles model, the "outer circle" countries are countries such as the <a href="/wiki/Philippines" title="Philippines">Philippines</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERubino2006_78-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERubino2006-78">[78]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Jamaica" title="Jamaica">Jamaica</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPatrick2006a_79-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEPatrick2006a-79">[79]</a></sup> India, Pakistan,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELimAnsaldo2006_80-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELimAnsaldo2006-80">[80]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Malaysia" title="Malaysia">Malaysia</a> and <a href="/wiki/Nigeria" title="Nigeria">Nigeria</a><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEConnell2006_81-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEConnell2006-81">[81]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchneider2007_82-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESchneider2007-82">[82]</a></sup> with a much smaller proportion of native speakers of English but much use of English as a second language for education, government, or domestic business, and its routine use for school instruction and official interactions with the government.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20085_83-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20085-83">[83]</a></sup>
</p><p>Those countries have millions of native speakers of <a href="/wiki/Dialect_continuum" title="Dialect continuum">dialect continua</a> ranging from an <a href="/wiki/English-based_creole_languages" title="English-based creole languages">English-based creole</a> to a more standard version of English. They have many more speakers of English who acquire English as they grow up through day-to-day use and listening to broadcasting, especially if they attend schools where English is the medium of instruction. Varieties of English learned by non-native speakers born to English-speaking parents may be influenced, especially in their grammar, by the other languages spoken by those learners.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBao2006377_76-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBao2006377-76">[76]</a></sup> Most of those varieties of English include words little used by native speakers of English in the inner-circle countries,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBao2006377_76-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBao2006377-76">[76]</a></sup> and they may show grammatical and phonological differences from inner-circle varieties as well. The standard English of the inner-circle countries is often taken as a norm for use of English in the outer-circle countries.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBao2006377_76-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBao2006377-76">[76]</a></sup>
</p><p>In the three-circles model, countries such as Poland, China, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Egypt, and other countries where English is taught as a foreign language, make up the "expanding circle".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20084_84-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20084-84">[84]</a></sup> The distinctions between English as a first language, as a second language, and as a foreign language are often debatable and may change in particular countries over time.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20085_83-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20085-83">[83]</a></sup> For example, in the <a href="/wiki/Netherlands" title="Netherlands">Netherlands</a> and some other countries of Europe, knowledge of English as a second language is nearly universal, with over 80 percent of the population able to use it,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEuropean_Commission2012_85-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEEuropean_Commission2012-85">[85]</a></sup> and thus English is routinely used to communicate with foreigners and often in higher education. In these countries, although English is not used for government business, its widespread use puts them at the boundary between the "outer circle" and "expanding circle". English is unusual among world languages in how many of its users are not native speakers but speakers of English as a second or foreign language.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKachru2006197_86-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKachru2006197-86">[86]</a></sup>
</p><p>Many users of English in the expanding circle use it to communicate with other people from the expanding circle, so that interaction with native speakers of English plays no part in their decision to use English.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKachru2006198_87-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKachru2006198-87">[87]</a></sup> Non-native varieties of English are widely used for international communication, and speakers of one such variety often encounter features of other varieties.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBao2006_88-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBao2006-88">[88]</a></sup> Very often today a conversation in English anywhere in the world may include no native speakers of English at all, even while including speakers from several different countries.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20087_89-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20087-89">[89]</a></sup>
</p>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Pluricentric_English">Pluricentric English</span></h3>
<div class="PieChartTemplate thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:202px">
<div style="background-color:white;margin:auto;position:relative;width:200px;height:200px;overflow:hidden;border-radius:100px;border:1px solid black">
<div style="border:solid transparent;position:absolute;width:100px;line-height:0;left:100px; top:100px; border-width:100px 0 0 272.37868371332px; border-left-color:#000000"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 200px 100px 0;border-color:#000000"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 100px 200px 0;border-color:#000000"></div><div style="border:solid transparent;position:absolute;width:100px;line-height:0;left:100px; top:100px; border-width:100px 0 0 227.1597302733px; border-left-color:#008000"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 200px 100px 0;border-color:#008000"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 100px 200px 0;border-color:#008000"></div><div style="border:solid transparent;position:absolute;width:100px;line-height:0;left:100px; top:100px; border-width:100px 0 0 190.31049331139px; border-left-color:#FCB514"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 200px 100px 0;border-color:#FCB514"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 100px 200px 0;border-color:#FCB514"></div><div style="border:solid transparent;position:absolute;width:100px;line-height:0;left:100px; top:100px; border-width:100px 0 0 157.57478599687px; border-left-color:#008751"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 200px 100px 0;border-color:#008751"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 100px 200px 0;border-color:#008751"></div><div style="border:solid transparent;position:absolute;width:100px;line-height:0;left:100px; top:100px; border-width:100px 0 0 85.952856038757px; border-left-color:#FF0000"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 200px 100px 0;border-color:#FF0000"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 100px 200px 0;border-color:#FF0000"></div><div style="border:solid transparent;position:absolute;width:100px;line-height:0;left:100px; top:100px; border-width:100px 0 0 39.592800879772px; border-left-color:#003399"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 200px 100px 0;border-color:#003399"></div>
<div style="position:absolute;line-height:0;border-style:solid;left:0;top:0;border-width:0 100px 200px 0;border-color:#003399"></div><div style="border:solid transparent;position:absolute;width:100px;line-height:0;right:100px; top:100px; border-width:78.239081057659px 62.278778048811px 0 0; border-top-color:#BF0A30"></div>
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<div class="thumbcaption">
<p>Pie chart showing the percentage of native English speakers living in "inner circle" English-speaking countries. Native speakers are now substantially outnumbered worldwide by second-language speakers of English (not counted in this chart).
</p>
<link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#BF0A30; color:white;"> </span> US (64.3%)</div><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#003399; color:white;"> </span> UK (16.7%)</div><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#FF0000; color:black;"> </span> Canada (5.3%)</div><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#008751; color:black;"> </span> Australia (4.7%)</div><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#FCB514; color:black;"> </span> South Africa (1.3%)</div><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#008000; color:white;"> </span> Ireland (1.1%)</div><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:#000000; color:white;"> </span> New Zealand (1%)</div><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r981673959"/><div class="legend"><span class="legend-color" style="background-color:white; color:black;"> </span> Other (5.6%)</div>
</div>
</div></div>
<p>English is a <a href="/wiki/Pluricentric_language" title="Pluricentric language">pluricentric language</a>, which means that no one national authority sets the standard for use of the language.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20082_90-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20082-90">[90]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERomaine1999_91-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERomaine1999-91">[91]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBaughCable2002_92-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBaughCable2002-92">[92]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20088–9_93-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20088–9-93">[93]</a></sup> Spoken English, for example English used in broadcasting, generally follows national pronunciation standards that are also established by custom rather than by regulation. International broadcasters are usually identifiable as coming from one country rather than another through their <a href="/wiki/Accent_(sociolinguistics)" title="Accent (sociolinguistics)">accents</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgill2006_94-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgill2006-94">[94]</a></sup> but newsreader scripts are also composed largely in international <a href="/wiki/Standard_written_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Standard written English">standard written English</a>. The norms of standard written English are maintained purely by the consensus of educated English-speakers around the world, without any oversight by any government or international organisation.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEAmmon20081537–1539_95-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEAmmon20081537–1539-95">[95]</a></sup>
</p><p>American listeners generally readily understand most British broadcasting, and British listeners readily understand most American broadcasting. Most English speakers around the world can understand radio programmes, television programmes, and films from many parts of the English-speaking world.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech2006122_96-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech2006122-96">[96]</a></sup> Both standard and non-standard varieties of English can include both formal or informal styles, distinguished by word choice and syntax and use both technical and non-technical registers.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20085–6_97-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20085–6-97">[97]</a></sup>
</p><p>The settlement history of the English-speaking inner circle countries outside Britain helped level dialect distinctions and produce <a href="/wiki/Koin%C3%A9_language" title="Koiné language">koineised</a> forms of English in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDeumert2006130_98-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDeumert2006130-98">[98]</a></sup> The majority of immigrants to the United States without British ancestry rapidly adopted English after arrival. Now the majority of the United States population are monolingual English speakers,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERyan2013Table_1_68-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERyan2013Table_1-68">[68]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDeumert2006131_99-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDeumert2006131-99">[99]</a></sup> and English has been given official or co-official status by 30 of the 50 state governments, as well as all five territorial governments of the US, though there has never been an official language at the <a href="/wiki/U.S._Government" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. Government">federal</a> level.<sup id="cite_ref-100" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-100">[100]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-101" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-101">[101]</a></sup>
</p>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="English_as_a_global_language">English as a global language</span></h3>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/English_as_a_lingua_franca" title="English as a lingua franca">English as a lingua franca</a></div> <div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="/wiki/Foreign_language_influences_in_English" title="Foreign language influences in English">Foreign language influences in English</a> and <a href="/wiki/Study_of_global_communication" title="Study of global communication">Study of global communication</a></div>
<p>English has ceased to be an "English language" in the sense of belonging only to people who are ethnically <a href="/wiki/English_people" title="English people">English</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERomaine19995_102-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERomaine19995-102">[102]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech20061_103-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech20061-103">[103]</a></sup> Use of English is growing country-by-country internally and for international communication. Most people learn English for practical rather than ideological reasons.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKachru2006195_104-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKachru2006195-104">[104]</a></sup> Many speakers of English in Africa have become part of an "Afro-Saxon" language community that unites Africans from different countries.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMazruiMazrui1998_105-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMazruiMazrui1998-105">[105]</a></sup>
</p><p>As decolonisation proceeded throughout the British Empire in the 1950s and 1960s, former colonies often did not reject English but rather continued to use it as independent countries setting their own language policies.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMufwene2006614_53-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMufwene2006614-53">[53]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENorthrup201381–86_54-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENorthrup201381–86-54">[54]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMesthrie2010594_106-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMesthrie2010594-106">[106]</a></sup> For example, the view of the <a href="/wiki/Indian_English" title="Indian English">English language</a> among many Indians has gone from associating it with colonialism to associating it with economic progress, and English continues to be an official language of India.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEAnnamalai2006_107-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEAnnamalai2006-107">[107]</a></sup> English is also widely used in media and literature, and the number of English language books published annually in India is the third largest in the world after the US and UK.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESailaja20092–9_108-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESailaja20092–9-108">[108]</a></sup> However English is rarely spoken as a first language, numbering only around a couple hundred-thousand people, and less than 5% of the population speak fluent English in India.<sup id="cite_ref-109" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-109">[109]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-110" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-110">[110]</a></sup> David Crystal claimed in 2004 that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2004_111-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2004-111">[111]</a></sup> but the number of English speakers in India is very uncertain, with most scholars concluding that the United States still has more speakers of English than India.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGraddol2010_112-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGraddol2010-112">[112]</a></sup>
</p><p>Modern English, sometimes described as the first global <a href="/wiki/Lingua_franca" title="Lingua franca">lingua franca</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGraddol2006_56-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGraddol2006-56">[56]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMeierkord2006165_113-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMeierkord2006165-113">[113]</a></sup> is also regarded as the first <a href="/wiki/World_language" title="World language">world language</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrutt-Griffler2006690–91_114-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBrutt-Griffler2006690–91-114">[114]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENorthrup2013_115-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENorthrup2013-115">[115]</a></sup> English is the world's most widely used language in newspaper publishing, book publishing, international telecommunications, scientific publishing, international trade, mass entertainment, and diplomacy.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENorthrup2013_115-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENorthrup2013-115">[115]</a></sup> English is, by international treaty, the basis for the required <a href="/wiki/Controlled_natural_language" title="Controlled natural language">controlled natural languages</a><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWojcik2006139_116-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWojcik2006139-116">[116]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Seaspeak" title="Seaspeak">Seaspeak</a> and Airspeak, used as <a href="/wiki/International_auxiliary_language" title="International auxiliary language">international languages</a> of seafaring<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInternational_Maritime_Organization2011_117-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEInternational_Maritime_Organization2011-117">[117]</a></sup> and aviation.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInternational_Civil_Aviation_Organization2011_118-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEInternational_Civil_Aviation_Organization2011-118">[118]</a></sup> English used to have parity with French and German in scientific research, but now it dominates that field.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGordin2015_119-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGordin2015-119">[119]</a></sup> It achieved parity with <a href="/wiki/French_language" title="French language">French</a> as a language of diplomacy at the <a href="/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles" title="Treaty of Versailles">Treaty of Versailles</a> negotiations in 1919.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPhillipson200447_120-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEPhillipson200447-120">[120]</a></sup> By the time of the foundation of the <a href="/wiki/United_Nations" title="United Nations">United Nations</a> at the end of <a href="/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II">World War II</a>, English had become pre-eminent<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEConradRubal-Lopez1996261_121-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEConradRubal-Lopez1996261-121">[121]</a></sup> and is now the main worldwide language of diplomacy and international relations.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERichter201229_122-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERichter201229-122">[122]</a></sup> It is one of six official languages of the United Nations.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEUnited_Nations2008_123-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEUnited_Nations2008-123">[123]</a></sup> Many other worldwide international organisations, including the <a href="/wiki/International_Olympic_Committee" title="International Olympic Committee">International Olympic Committee</a>, specify English as a working language or official language of the organisation.
</p><p>Many regional international organisations such as the <a href="/wiki/European_Free_Trade_Association" title="European Free Trade Association">European Free Trade Association</a>, <a href="/wiki/Association_of_Southeast_Asian_Nations" class="mw-redirect" title="Association of Southeast Asian Nations">Association of Southeast Asian Nations</a> (ASEAN),<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2003a_57-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2003a-57">[57]</a></sup> and <a href="/wiki/Asia-Pacific_Economic_Cooperation" title="Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation">Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation</a> (APEC) set English as their organisation's sole working language even though most members are not countries with a majority of native English speakers. While the European Union (EU) allows member states to designate any of the national languages as an official language of the Union, in practice English is the main working language of EU organisations.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEAmmon2006321_124-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEAmmon2006321-124">[124]</a></sup>
</p><p>Although in most countries English is not an official language, it is currently the language most often taught as a <a href="/wiki/Foreign_language" title="Foreign language">foreign language</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGraddol2006_56-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGraddol2006-56">[56]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2003a_57-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2003a-57">[57]</a></sup> In the countries of the EU, English is the most widely spoken foreign language in nineteen of the twenty-five member states where it is not an official language (that is, the countries other than Ireland and <a href="/wiki/Malta" title="Malta">Malta</a>). In a 2012 official Eurobarometer poll (conducted when the UK was still a member of the EU), 38 percent of the EU respondents outside the countries where English is an official language said they could speak English well enough to have a conversation in that language. The next most commonly mentioned foreign language, French (which is the most widely known foreign language in the UK and Ireland), could be used in conversation by 12 percent of respondents.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEuropean_Commission201221,_19_125-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEEuropean_Commission201221,_19-125">[125]</a></sup>
</p><p>A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of occupations and professions such as medicine<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEAlcaraz_ArizaNavarro2006_126-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEAlcaraz_ArizaNavarro2006-126">[126]</a></sup> and computing. English has become so important in scientific publishing that more than 80 percent of all scientific journal articles indexed by <i>Chemical Abstracts</i> in 1998 were written in English, as were 90 percent of all articles in natural science publications by 1996 and 82 percent of articles in humanities publications by 1995.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrutt-Griffler2006694–95_127-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBrutt-Griffler2006694–95-127">[127]</a></sup>
</p><p>International communities such as international business people may use English as an <a href="/wiki/International_auxiliary_language" title="International auxiliary language">auxiliary language</a>, with an emphasis on vocabulary suitable for their domain of interest. This has led some scholars to develop the study of English as an auxiliary language. The trademarked <a href="/wiki/Globish_(Nerriere)" class="mw-redirect" title="Globish (Nerriere)">Globish</a> uses a relatively small subset of English vocabulary (about 1500 words, designed to represent the highest use in international business English) in combination with the standard English grammar.<sup id="cite_ref-128" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-128">[128]</a></sup> Other examples include <a href="/wiki/Simple_English_Wikipedia" title="Simple English Wikipedia">Simple English</a>.
</p><p>The increased use of the English language globally has had an effect on other languages, leading to some English words being assimilated into the vocabularies of other languages. This influence of English has led to concerns about <a href="/wiki/Language_death" title="Language death">language death</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2002_129-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2002-129">[129]</a></sup> and to claims of <a href="/wiki/Linguistic_imperialism" title="Linguistic imperialism">linguistic imperialism</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJambor2007_130-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEJambor2007-130">[130]</a></sup> and has provoked resistance to the spread of English; however the number of speakers continues to increase because many people around the world think that English provides them with opportunities for better employment and improved lives.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech2006Chapter_12:_English_into_the_Future_131-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESvartvikLeech2006Chapter_12:_English_into_the_Future-131">[131]</a></sup>
</p><p>Although some scholars<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch"><span title="The material near this tag possibly uses too-vague attribution or weasel words. (June 2019)">who?</span></a></i>]</sup> mention a possibility of future divergence of English dialects into mutually unintelligible languages, most think a more likely outcome is that English will continue to function as a <a href="/wiki/Koin%C3%A9_language" title="Koiné language">koineised</a> language in which the standard form unifies speakers from around the world.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECrystal2006_132-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECrystal2006-132">[132]</a></sup> English is used as the language for wider communication in countries around the world.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrutt-Griffler2006_133-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBrutt-Griffler2006-133">[133]</a></sup> Thus English has grown in worldwide use much more than any <a href="/wiki/Constructed_language" title="Constructed language">constructed language</a> proposed as an <a href="/wiki/International_auxiliary_language" title="International auxiliary language">international auxiliary language</a>, including <a href="/wiki/Esperanto" title="Esperanto">Esperanto</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELi2003_134-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELi2003-134">[134]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMeierkord2006163_135-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMeierkord2006163-135">[135]</a></sup>
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Phonology">Phonology</span></h2>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/English_phonology" title="English phonology">English phonology</a></div>
<p>The <a href="/wiki/Phonetics" title="Phonetics">phonetics</a> and <a href="/wiki/Phonology" title="Phonology">phonology</a> of the English language differ from one dialect to another, usually without interfering with mutual communication. Phonological variation affects the inventory of <a href="/wiki/Phoneme" title="Phoneme">phonemes</a> (i.e. speech sounds that distinguish meaning), and phonetic variation consists in differences in pronunciation of the phonemes. <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWolfram2006334–335_136-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWolfram2006334–335-136">[136]</a></sup> This overview mainly describes the <a href="/wiki/Standard_language" title="Standard language">standard pronunciations</a> of the <a href="/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</a> and the <a href="/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a>: <a href="/wiki/Received_Pronunciation" title="Received Pronunciation">Received Pronunciation</a> (RP) and <a href="/wiki/General_American" class="mw-redirect" title="General American">General American</a> (GA). (See <a href="#Dialects,_accents,_and_varieties">§ Dialects, accents, and varieties</a>, below.)
</p><p>The phonetic symbols used below are from the <a href="/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet" title="International Phonetic Alphabet">International Phonetic Alphabet</a> (IPA).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECarrHoneybone2007_137-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECarrHoneybone2007-137">[137]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBermúdez-OteroMcMahon2006_138-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBermúdez-OteroMcMahon2006-138">[138]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacMahon2006_139-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMacMahon2006-139">[139]</a></sup>
</p>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Consonants">Consonants</span></h3>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/English_phonology#Consonants" title="English phonology">English phonology § Consonants</a></div>
<p>Most English dialects share the same 24<span class="nowrap"> </span>consonant phonemes. The consonant inventory shown below is valid for <a href="/wiki/California_English" title="California English">California English</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInternational_Phonetic_Association199941–42_140-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEInternational_Phonetic_Association199941–42-140">[140]</a></sup> and for RP.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKönig1994534_141-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKönig1994534-141">[141]</a></sup>
</p>
<table class="wikitable" style="text-align: center">
<caption>Consonant phonemes
</caption>
<tbody><tr>
<th>
</th>
<th colspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Labial_consonant" title="Labial consonant">Labial</a>
</th>
<th colspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Interdental_consonant" title="Interdental consonant">Dental</a>
</th>
<th colspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Alveolar_consonant" title="Alveolar consonant">Alveolar</a>
</th>
<th colspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Postalveolar_consonant" title="Postalveolar consonant">Post-<br />alveolar</a>
</th>
<th colspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Palatal_consonant" title="Palatal consonant">Palatal</a>
</th>
<th colspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Velar_consonant" title="Velar consonant">Velar</a>
</th>
<th colspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Glottal_consonant" title="Glottal consonant">Glottal</a>
</th></tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Nasal_consonant" title="Nasal consonant">Nasal</a>
</th>
<td style="border-right: 0;"></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_bilabial_nasal" title="Voiced bilabial nasal">m</a></span>
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_alveolar_nasal" class="mw-redirect" title="Voiced alveolar nasal">n</a></span>
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_velar_nasal" title="Voiced velar nasal">ŋ</a></span>
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Stop_consonant" class="mw-redirect" title="Stop consonant">Stop</a>
</th>
<td style="border-right: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiceless_bilabial_plosive" title="Voiceless bilabial plosive">p</a></span></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_bilabial_plosive" title="Voiced bilabial plosive">b</a></span>
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiceless_alveolar_plosive" class="mw-redirect" title="Voiceless alveolar plosive">t</a></span></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_alveolar_plosive" class="mw-redirect" title="Voiced alveolar plosive">d</a></span>
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;">
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiceless_velar_plosive" title="Voiceless velar plosive">k</a></span></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_velar_plosive" title="Voiced velar plosive">ɡ</a></span>
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Affricate_consonant" class="mw-redirect" title="Affricate consonant">Affricate</a>
</th>
<td style="border-right: 0;"></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;">
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;">
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiceless_postalveolar_affricate" title="Voiceless postalveolar affricate">tʃ</a></span></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_postalveolar_affricate" title="Voiced postalveolar affricate">dʒ</a></span>
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;">
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Fricative_consonant" class="mw-redirect" title="Fricative consonant">Fricative</a>
</th>
<td style="border-right: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiceless_labiodental_fricative" title="Voiceless labiodental fricative">f</a></span></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_labiodental_fricative" title="Voiced labiodental fricative">v</a></span>
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiceless_dental_fricative" title="Voiceless dental fricative">θ</a></span></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_dental_fricative" title="Voiced dental fricative">ð</a></span>
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiceless_alveolar_fricative" title="Voiceless alveolar fricative">s</a></span></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_alveolar_fricative" title="Voiced alveolar fricative">z</a></span>
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiceless_postalveolar_fricative" title="Voiceless postalveolar fricative">ʃ</a></span></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_postalveolar_fricative" title="Voiced postalveolar fricative">ʒ</a></span>
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiceless_glottal_fricative" title="Voiceless glottal fricative">h</a></span></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Approximant_consonant" class="mw-redirect" title="Approximant consonant">Approximant</a>
</th>
<td colspan="2">
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_alveolar_lateral_approximant" class="mw-redirect" title="Voiced alveolar lateral approximant">l</a></span>
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_alveolar_approximant" class="mw-redirect" title="Voiced alveolar approximant">ɹ</a></span>*
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_palatal_approximant" title="Voiced palatal approximant">j</a></span>
</td>
<td style="border-right: 0;"></td>
<td style="border-left: 0;"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Voiced_labial%E2%80%93velar_approximant" class="mw-redirect" title="Voiced labial–velar approximant">w</a></span>
</td>
<td colspan="2">
</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><small>* Conventionally transcribed <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/r/</span></small>
</p><p>In the table, when <a href="/wiki/Obstruent" title="Obstruent">obstruents</a> (stops, affricates, and fricatives) appear in pairs, such as <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/p b/</span>, <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/tʃ dʒ/</span>, and <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/s z/</span>, the first is <a href="/wiki/Fortis_and_lenis" title="Fortis and lenis">fortis</a> (strong) and the second is lenis (weak). Fortis obstruents, such as <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/p tʃ s/</span> are pronounced with more muscular tension and breath force than lenis consonants, such as <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/b dʒ z/</span>, and are always <a href="/wiki/Voicelessness" title="Voicelessness">voiceless</a>. Lenis consonants are partly <a href="/wiki/Voice_(phonetics)" title="Voice (phonetics)">voiced</a> at the beginning and end of utterances, and fully voiced between vowels. Fortis stops such as <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/p/</span> have additional articulatory or acoustic features in most dialects: they are <a href="/wiki/Aspirated_consonant" title="Aspirated consonant">aspirated</a> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[pʰ]</span> when they occur alone at the beginning of a stressed syllable, often unaspirated in other cases, and often <a href="/wiki/Unreleased_stop" class="mw-redirect" title="Unreleased stop">unreleased</a> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[p̚]</span> or pre-glottalised <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[ʔp]</span> at the end of a syllable. In a single-syllable word, a vowel before a fortis stop is shortened: thus <i>nip</i> has a noticeably shorter vowel (phonetically, but not phonemically) than <i>nib</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[nɪˑb̥]</span> (<a href="#Vowels">see below</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECollinsMees200347–53_142-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECollinsMees200347–53-142">[142]</a></sup>
</p>
<ul><li>lenis stops: <i>bin</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[b̥ɪˑn]</span>, <i>about</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[əˈbaʊt]</span>, <i>nib</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[nɪˑb̥]</span></li>
<li>fortis stops: <i>pin</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[pʰɪn]</span>; <i>spin</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[spɪn]</span>; <i>happy</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[ˈhæpi]</span>; <i>nip</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[nɪp̚]</span> or <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[nɪʔp]</span></li></ul>
<p>In RP, the lateral approximant <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/l/</span>, has two main <a href="/wiki/Allophone" title="Allophone">allophones</a> (pronunciation variants): the clear or plain <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[l]</span>, as in <i>light</i>, and the dark or <a href="/wiki/Velarized_alveolar_lateral_approximant" class="mw-redirect" title="Velarized alveolar lateral approximant">velarised</a> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[ɫ]</span>, as in <i>full</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah200813_143-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah200813-143">[143]</a></sup> GA has dark <i>l</i> in most cases.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah200841_144-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah200841-144">[144]</a></sup>
</p>
<ul><li>clear <i>l</i>: RP <i>light</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[laɪt]</span></li>
<li>dark <i>l</i>: RP and GA <i>full</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[fʊɫ]</span>, GA <i>light</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[ɫaɪt]</span></li></ul>
<p>All <a href="/wiki/Sonorant" title="Sonorant">sonorants</a> (liquids <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/l, r/</span> and nasals <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/m, n, ŋ/</span>) devoice when following a voiceless obstruent, and they are syllabic when following a consonant at the end of a word.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrintonBrinton201056–59_145-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBrintonBrinton201056–59-145">[145]</a></sup>
</p>
<ul><li>voiceless sonorants: <i>clay</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[kl̥eɪ̯]</span>; <i>snow</i> RP <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[sn̥əʊ̯]</span>, GA <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[sn̥oʊ̯]</span></li>
<li>syllabic sonorants: <i>paddle</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[ˈpad.l̩]</span>, <i>button</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[ˈbʌt.n̩]</span></li></ul>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Vowels">Vowels</span></h3>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/English_phonology#Vowels" title="English phonology">English phonology § Vowels</a></div>
<p>The pronunciation of vowels varies a great deal between dialects and is one of the most detectable aspects of a speaker's accent. The table below lists the vowel <a href="/wiki/Phoneme" title="Phoneme">phonemes</a> in Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA), with examples of words in which they occur from <a href="/wiki/Lexical_set" title="Lexical set">lexical sets</a> compiled by linguists. The vowels are represented with symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet; those given for RP are standard in British dictionaries and other publications.<sup id="cite_ref-146" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-146">[146]</a></sup>
</p>
<table class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; float: left; margin-right: 1em;">
<caption>Monophthongs
</caption>
<tbody><tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Received_Pronunciation" title="Received Pronunciation">RP</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/General_American" class="mw-redirect" title="General American">GA</a></th>
<th>Word
</th></tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Close_front_unrounded_vowel" title="Close front unrounded vowel">iː</a></span></td>
<td><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Close_front_unrounded_vowel" title="Close front unrounded vowel">i</a></span></td>
<td>n<b>ee</b>d
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Near-close_near-front_unrounded_vowel" title="Near-close near-front unrounded vowel">ɪ</a></span></td>
<td>b<b>i</b>d
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Mid_front_unrounded_vowel" title="Mid front unrounded vowel">e</a></span></td>
<td><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Open-mid_front_unrounded_vowel" title="Open-mid front unrounded vowel">ɛ</a></span></td>
<td>b<b>e</b>d
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Near-open_front_unrounded_vowel" title="Near-open front unrounded vowel">æ</a></span></td>
<td>b<b>a</b>ck
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Open_back_unrounded_vowel" title="Open back unrounded vowel">ɑː</a></span></td>
<td rowspan="2"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Open_back_unrounded_vowel" title="Open back unrounded vowel">ɑ</a></span></td>
<td>br<b>a</b>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td rowspan="2"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Open_back_rounded_vowel" title="Open back rounded vowel">ɒ</a></span></td>
<td>b<b>o</b>x
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td rowspan="2"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Open-mid_back_rounded_vowel" title="Open-mid back rounded vowel">ɔ</a></span>, <span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Open_back_unrounded_vowel" title="Open back unrounded vowel">ɑ</a></span></td>
<td>cl<b>o</b>th
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Close-mid_back_rounded_vowel" title="Close-mid back rounded vowel">ɔː</a></span></td>
<td>p<b>aw</b>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Close_back_rounded_vowel" title="Close back rounded vowel">uː</a></span></td>
<td><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Close_back_rounded_vowel" title="Close back rounded vowel">u</a></span></td>
<td>f<b>oo</b>d
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Near-close_near-back_rounded_vowel" title="Near-close near-back rounded vowel">ʊ</a></span></td>
<td>g<b>oo</b>d
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Near-open_central_vowel" title="Near-open central vowel">ʌ</a></span></td>
<td>b<b>u</b>t
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Mid_central_vowel" title="Mid central vowel">ɜː</a></span></td>
<td><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/R-colored_vowel" title="R-colored vowel">ɜɹ</a></span></td>
<td>b<b>ir</b>d
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Mid_central_vowel" title="Mid central vowel">ə</a></span></td>
<td>comm<b>a</b>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
<div style="float: left;">
<table class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;">
<caption>Closing diphthongs
</caption>
<tbody><tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Received_Pronunciation" title="Received Pronunciation">RP</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/General_American" class="mw-redirect" title="General American">GA</a></th>
<th>Word
</th></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">eɪ</span></td>
<td>b<b>ay</b>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">əʊ</span></td>
<td><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">oʊ</span></td>
<td>r<b>oa</b>d
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">aɪ</span></td>
<td>cr<b>y</b>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">aʊ</span></td>
<td>c<b>ow</b>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">ɔɪ</span></td>
<td>b<b>oy</b>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;">
<caption>Centring diphthongs
</caption>
<tbody><tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Received_Pronunciation" title="Received Pronunciation">RP</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/General_American" class="mw-redirect" title="General American">GA</a></th>
<th>word
</th></tr>
<tr>
<td><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">ɪə</span></td>
<td><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">ɪɹ</span></td>
<td>p<b>eer</b>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="IPA"><a href="/wiki/Open-mid_front_unrounded_vowel" title="Open-mid front unrounded vowel">eə</a></span></td>
<td><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">ɛɹ</span></td>
<td>p<b>air</b>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">ʊə</span></td>
<td><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">ʊɹ</span></td>
<td>p<b>oor</b>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
<p>In RP, vowel length is phonemic; <a href="/wiki/Vowel_length" title="Vowel length">long vowels</a> are marked with a <a href="/wiki/Triangular_colon" class="mw-redirect" title="Triangular colon">triangular colon</a> ⟨<span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">ː</span>⟩ in the table above, such as the vowel of <i>need</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[niːd]</span> as opposed to <i>bid</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[bɪd]</span>. In GA, vowel length is non-distinctive.
</p><p>In both RP and GA, vowels are phonetically <a href="/wiki/Clipping_(phonetics)" title="Clipping (phonetics)">shortened before fortis consonants</a> in the same <a href="/wiki/Syllable" title="Syllable">syllable</a>, like <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/t tʃ f/</span>, but not before lenis consonants like <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/d dʒ v/</span> or in open syllables: thus, the vowels of <i>rich</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[rɪtʃ]</span>, <i>neat</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[nit]</span>, and <i>safe</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[seɪ̯f]</span> are noticeably shorter than the vowels of <i>ridge</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[rɪˑdʒ]</span>, <i>need</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[niˑd]</span>, and <i>save</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[seˑɪ̯v]</span>, and the vowel of <i>light</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[laɪ̯t]</span> is shorter than that of <i>lie</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[laˑɪ̯]</span>. Because lenis consonants are frequently voiceless at the end of a syllable, vowel length is an important cue as to whether the following consonant is lenis or fortis.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECollinsMees200346–50_147-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECollinsMees200346–50-147">[147]</a></sup>
</p><p>The vowel <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ə/</span> only occurs in unstressed syllables and is more open in quality in stem-final positions.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECruttenden2014138_148-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTECruttenden2014138-148">[148]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFlemmingJohnson2007_149-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEFlemmingJohnson2007-149">[149]</a></sup> Some dialects do not contrast <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ɪ/</span> and <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ə/</span> in unstressed positions, so that <i>rabbit</i> and <i>abbot</i> rhyme and <i>Lenin</i> and <i>Lennon</i> are homophonous, a dialect feature called <a href="/wiki/Weak_vowel_merger" class="mw-redirect" title="Weak vowel merger">weak vowel merger</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWells1982167_150-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWells1982167-150">[150]</a></sup> GA <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ɜr/</span> and <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ər/</span> are realised as an <a href="/wiki/R-colored_vowel" title="R-colored vowel"><i>r</i>-coloured vowel</a> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[ɚ]</span>, as in <i>further</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[ˈfɚðɚ]</span> (phonemically <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ˈfɜrðər/</span>), which in RP is realised as <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[ˈfəːðə]</span> (phonemically <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ˈfɜːðə/</span>).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWells1982121_151-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWells1982121-151">[151]</a></sup>
</p>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Phonotactics">Phonotactics</span></h3>
<p>An English syllable includes a syllable nucleus consisting of a vowel sound. Syllable onset and coda (start and end) are optional. A syllable can start with up to three consonant sounds, as in <i>sprint</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/sprɪnt/</span>, and end with up to four, as in <i>texts</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/teksts/</span>. This gives an English syllable the following structure, (CCC)V(CCCC) where C represents a consonant and V a vowel; the word <i>strengths</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/strɛŋkθs/</span> is thus an example of the most complex syllable possible in English. The consonants that may appear together in onsets or codas are restricted, as is the order in which they may appear. Onsets can only have four types of consonant clusters: a stop and approximant, as in <i>play</i>; a voiceless fricative and approximant, as in <i>fly</i> or <i>sly</i>; <i>s</i> and a voiceless stop, as in <i>stay</i>; and <i>s</i>, a voiceless stop, and an approximant, as in <i>string</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrintonBrinton201060_152-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBrintonBrinton201060-152">[152]</a></sup> Clusters of nasal and stop are only allowed in codas. Clusters of obstruents always agree in voicing, and clusters of sibilants and of plosives with the same point of articulation are prohibited. Furthermore, several consonants have limited distributions: <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/h/</span> can only occur in syllable-initial position, and <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ŋ/</span> only in syllable-final position.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKönig1994537–538_153-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKönig1994537–538-153">[153]</a></sup>
</p>
<h3><span id="Stress.2C_rhythm_and_intonation"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Stress,_rhythm_and_intonation">Stress, rhythm and intonation</span></h3>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="/wiki/Stress_and_vowel_reduction_in_English" title="Stress and vowel reduction in English">Stress and vowel reduction in English</a> and <a href="/wiki/Intonation_in_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Intonation in English">Intonation in English</a></div>
<p><a href="/wiki/Stress_(linguistics)" title="Stress (linguistics)">Stress</a> plays an important role in English. Certain <a href="/wiki/Syllable" title="Syllable">syllables</a> are stressed, while others are unstressed. Stress is a combination of duration, intensity, vowel quality, and sometimes changes in pitch. Stressed syllables are pronounced longer and louder than unstressed syllables, and vowels in unstressed syllables are frequently <a href="/wiki/Vowel_reduction" title="Vowel reduction">reduced</a> while vowels in stressed syllables are not.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInternational_Phonetic_Association199942_154-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEInternational_Phonetic_Association199942-154">[154]</a></sup> Some words, primarily short function words but also some modal verbs such as <i>can</i>, have <a href="/wiki/Weak_and_strong_forms_in_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Weak and strong forms in English">weak and strong forms</a> depending on whether they occur in stressed or non-stressed position within a sentence.
</p><p>Stress in English is <a href="/wiki/Phoneme" title="Phoneme">phonemic</a>, and some pairs of words are distinguished by stress. For instance, the word <i>contract</i> is stressed on the first syllable (<span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="'k' in 'kind'">k</span><span title="/ɒ/: 'o' in 'body'">ɒ</span><span title="'n' in 'nigh'">n</span><span title="'t' in 'tie'">t</span><span title="'r' in 'rye'">r</span><span title="/æ/: 'a' in 'bad'">æ</span><span title="'k' in 'kind'">k</span><span title="'t' in 'tie'">t</span></span>/</a></span></span> <a href="/wiki/Help:Pronunciation_respelling_key" title="Help:Pronunciation respelling key"><i title="English pronunciation respelling"><span style="font-size:90%">KON</span>-trakt</i></a>) when used as a noun, but on the last syllable (<span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="'k' in 'kind'">k</span><span title="/ə/: 'a' in 'about'">ə</span><span title="'n' in 'nigh'">n</span><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="'t' in 'tie'">t</span><span title="'r' in 'rye'">r</span><span title="/æ/: 'a' in 'bad'">æ</span><span title="'k' in 'kind'">k</span><span title="'t' in 'tie'">t</span></span>/</a></span></span> <a href="/wiki/Help:Pronunciation_respelling_key" title="Help:Pronunciation respelling key"><i title="English pronunciation respelling">kən-<span style="font-size:90%">TRAKT</span></i></a>) for most meanings (for example, "reduce in size") when used as a verb.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEOxford_Learner's_Dictionary2015Entry_"contract"_155-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEOxford_Learner's_Dictionary2015Entry_"contract"-155">[155]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMerriam_Webster2015Entry_"contract"_156-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMerriam_Webster2015Entry_"contract"-156">[156]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacquarie_Dictionary2015Entry_"contract"_157-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMacquarie_Dictionary2015Entry_"contract"-157">[157]</a></sup> Here stress is connected to <a href="/wiki/Vowel_reduction" title="Vowel reduction">vowel reduction</a>: in the noun "contract" the first syllable is stressed and has the unreduced vowel <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ɒ/</span>, but in the verb "contract" the first syllable is unstressed and its vowel is reduced to <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ə/</span>. Stress is also used to distinguish between words and phrases, so that a compound word receives a single stress unit, but the corresponding phrase has two: e.g. <i>a burnout</i> (<span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="'b' in 'buy'">b</span><span title="/ɜːr/: 'ur' in 'fur'">ɜːr</span><span title="'n' in 'nigh'">n</span><span title="/aʊ/: 'ou' in 'mouth'">aʊ</span><span title="'t' in 'tie'">t</span></span>/</a></span></span>) versus <i>to burn out</i> (<span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="'b' in 'buy'">b</span><span title="/ɜːr/: 'ur' in 'fur'">ɜːr</span><span title="'n' in 'nigh'">n</span></span><span class="wrap"> </span><span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="/aʊ/: 'ou' in 'mouth'">aʊ</span><span title="'t' in 'tie'">t</span></span>/</a></span></span>), and <i>a hotdog</i> (<span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="'h' in 'hi'">h</span><span title="/ɒ/: 'o' in 'body'">ɒ</span><span title="'t' in 'tie'">t</span><span title="'d' in 'dye'">d</span><span title="/ɒ/: 'o' in 'body'">ɒ</span><span title="/ɡ/: 'g' in 'guy'">ɡ</span></span>/</a></span></span>) versus <i>a hot dog</i> (<span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="'h' in 'hi'">h</span><span title="/ɒ/: 'o' in 'body'">ɒ</span><span title="'t' in 'tie'">t</span></span><span class="wrap"> </span><span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="'d' in 'dye'">d</span><span title="/ɒ/: 'o' in 'body'">ɒ</span><span title="/ɡ/: 'g' in 'guy'">ɡ</span></span>/</a></span></span>).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrintonBrinton201066_158-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBrintonBrinton201066-158">[158]</a></sup>
</p><p>In terms of <a href="/wiki/Rhythm" title="Rhythm">rhythm</a>, English is generally described as a <a href="/wiki/Stress-timed" class="mw-redirect" title="Stress-timed">stress-timed</a> language, meaning that the amount of time between stressed syllables tends to be equal.<sup id="cite_ref-159" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-159">[159]</a></sup> Stressed syllables are pronounced longer, but unstressed syllables (syllables between stresses) are shortened. Vowels in unstressed syllables are shortened as well, and vowel shortening causes changes in <a href="/wiki/Vowel_quality" class="mw-redirect" title="Vowel quality">vowel quality</a>: <a href="/wiki/Vowel_reduction" title="Vowel reduction">vowel reduction</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-160" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-160">[160]</a></sup>
</p>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Regional_variation">Regional variation</span></h3>
<table class="wikitable mw-collapsible">
<caption class="nowrap">Varieties of Standard English and their features<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20024–6_161-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20024–6-161">[161]</a></sup>
</caption>
<tbody><tr>
<th>Phonological<br />features</th>
<th><a href="/wiki/American_English" title="American English">United<br />States</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/Canadian_English" title="Canadian English">Canada</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/Hiberno-English" title="Hiberno-English">Republic<br />of Ireland</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/Ulster_English" title="Ulster English">Northern<br />Ireland</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/Scottish_English" title="Scottish English">Scotland</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/English_language_in_England" title="English language in England">England</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/Welsh_English" title="Welsh English">Wales</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/South_African_English" title="South African English">South<br />Africa</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/Australian_English" title="Australian English">Australia</a></th>
<th><a href="/wiki/New_Zealand_English" title="New Zealand English">New<br />Zealand</a>
</th></tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Father-bother_merger" class="mw-redirect" title="Father-bother merger"><i>father</i>–<i>bother</i> merger</a>
</th>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ɒ/: 'o' in 'body'">ɒ</span></span>/</a></span></span> is <a href="/wiki/Unrounded" class="mw-redirect" title="Unrounded">unrounded</a>
</th>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ɜːr/: 'ur' in 'fur'">ɜːr</span></span>/</a></span></span> is pronounced <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[ɚ]</span>
</th>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Cot-caught_merger" class="mw-redirect" title="Cot-caught merger"><i>cot</i>–<i>caught</i> merger</a>
</th>
<td>possibly</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>possibly</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Full%E2%80%93fool_merger" class="mw-redirect" title="Full–fool merger"><i>fool</i>–<i>full</i> merger</a>
</th>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="'t' in 'tie'">t</span></span>,<span class="wrap"> </span><span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="'d' in 'dye'">d</span></span>/</a></span></span> <a href="/wiki/Flapping" title="Flapping">flapping</a>
</th>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>possibly</td>
<td>often</td>
<td>rarely</td>
<td>rarely</td>
<td>rarely</td>
<td>rarely</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>often
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Trap-bath_split" class="mw-redirect" title="Trap-bath split"><i>trap</i>–<i>bath</i> split</a>
</th>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td>possibly</td>
<td>possibly</td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td>often</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>often</td>
<td>yes
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English" title="Rhoticity in English">non-rhotic</a> (<span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="'r' in 'rye'">r</span></span>/</a></span></span>-dropping after vowels)
</th>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th>close vowels for <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/æ, ɛ/</span>
</th>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="'l' in 'lie'">l</span></span>/</a></span></span> can always be pronounced <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[ɫ]</span>
</th>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes</td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ɑːr/</span> is <a href="/wiki/Fronted_(phonetics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Fronted (phonetics)">fronted</a>
</th>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td>possibly</td>
<td>possibly</td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td style="background:lightgrey;"></td>
<td>yes</td>
<td>yes
</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table class="wikitable floatright">
<caption>Dialects and low vowels
</caption>
<tbody><tr>
<th><a href="/wiki/Lexical_set" title="Lexical set">Lexical set</a></th>
<th>RP</th>
<th>GA</th>
<th>Can</th>
<th>Sound change
</th></tr>
<tr>
<th><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r920966791">.mw-parser-output span.smallcaps{font-variant:small-caps}.mw-parser-output span.smallcaps-smaller{font-size:85%}</style><span class="smallcaps smallcaps-smaller">THOUGHT</span>
</th>
<td><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ɔː/</span></td>
<td rowspan="2"><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ɔ/</span> or <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ɑ/</span></td>
<td rowspan="4"><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ɑ/</span></td>
<td><a href="/wiki/Cot%E2%80%93caught_merger" title="Cot–caught merger"><i>cot</i>–<i>caught</i> merger</a>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r920966791"/><span class="smallcaps smallcaps-smaller">CLOTH</span>
</th>
<td rowspan="2"><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ɒ/</span></td>
<td><a href="/wiki/Lot%E2%80%93cloth_split" class="mw-redirect" title="Lot–cloth split"><i>lot</i>–<i>cloth</i> split</a>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r920966791"/><span class="smallcaps smallcaps-smaller">LOT</span>
</th>
<td rowspan="2"><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ɑ/</span></td>
<td rowspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Father%E2%80%93bother_merger" class="mw-redirect" title="Father–bother merger"><i>father</i>–<i>bother</i> merger</a>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r920966791"/><span class="smallcaps smallcaps-smaller">PALM</span>
</th>
<td rowspan="2"><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ɑː/</span>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r920966791"/><span class="smallcaps smallcaps-smaller">BATH</span>
</th>
<td rowspan="2"><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/æ/</span></td>
<td rowspan="2"><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/æ/</span></td>
<td rowspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Trap%E2%80%93bath_split" title="Trap–bath split"><i>trap</i>–<i>bath</i> split</a>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r920966791"/><span class="smallcaps smallcaps-smaller">TRAP</span>
</th>
<td><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/æ/</span>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>Varieties of English vary the most in pronunciation of vowels. The best known national varieties used as standards for education in non-English-speaking countries are British (BrE) and American (AmE). Countries such as <a href="/wiki/Canadian_English" title="Canadian English">Canada</a>, <a href="/wiki/Australian_English" title="Australian English">Australia</a>, <a href="/wiki/Hiberno_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Hiberno English">Ireland</a>, <a href="/wiki/New_Zealand_English" title="New Zealand English">New Zealand</a> and <a href="/wiki/South_African_English" title="South African English">South Africa</a> have their own standard varieties which are less often used as standards for education internationally. Some differences between the various dialects are shown in the table "Varieties of Standard English and their features".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20024–6_161-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETrudgillHannah20024–6-161">[161]</a></sup>
</p><p>English has undergone many <a href="/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English" title="Phonological history of English">historical sound changes</a>, some of them affecting all varieties, and others affecting only a few. Most standard varieties are affected by the <a href="/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift" title="Great Vowel Shift">Great Vowel Shift</a>, which changed the pronunciation of long vowels, but a few dialects have slightly different results. In North America, a number of chain shifts such as the <a href="/wiki/Northern_Cities_Vowel_Shift" class="mw-redirect" title="Northern Cities Vowel Shift">Northern Cities Vowel Shift</a> and <a href="/wiki/Canadian_Shift" title="Canadian Shift">Canadian Shift</a> have produced very different vowel landscapes in some regional accents.<sup id="cite_ref-162" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-162">[162]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-163" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-163">[163]</a></sup>
</p><p>Some dialects have fewer or more consonant phonemes and <a href="/wiki/Phone_(phonetics)" title="Phone (phonetics)">phones</a> than the standard varieties. Some conservative varieties like Scottish English have a <a href="/wiki/Voicelessness" title="Voicelessness">voiceless</a> <span class="IPA nowrap" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[<a href="/wiki/Voiceless_labial%E2%80%93velar_fricative" class="mw-redirect" title="Voiceless labial–velar fricative">ʍ</a>]</span> sound in <i>whine</i> that contrasts with the voiced <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[w]</span> in <i>wine</i>, but most other dialects pronounce both words with voiced <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">[w]</span>, a dialect feature called <a href="/wiki/Wine%E2%80%93whine_merger" class="mw-redirect" title="Wine–whine merger"><i>wine</i>–<i>whine</i> merger</a>. The unvoiced velar fricative sound <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/x/</span> is found in Scottish English, which distinguishes <i>loch</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/lɔx/</span> from <i>lock</i> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/lɔk/</span>. Accents like <a href="/wiki/Cockney" title="Cockney">Cockney</a> with "<i>h</i>-dropping" lack the glottal fricative <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/h/</span>, and dialects with <a href="/wiki/Th-stopping" title="Th-stopping"><i>th</i>-stopping</a> and <a href="/wiki/Th-fronting" title="Th-fronting"><i>th</i>-fronting</a> like <a href="/wiki/African_American_Vernacular_English" class="mw-redirect" title="African American Vernacular English">African American Vernacular</a> and <a href="/wiki/Estuary_English" title="Estuary English">Estuary English</a> do not have the dental fricatives <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/θ, ð/</span>, but replace them with dental or alveolar stops <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/t, d/</span> or labiodental fricatives <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/f, v/</span>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERoach200953_164-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERoach200953-164">[164]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGiegerich199236_165-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGiegerich199236-165">[165]</a></sup> Other changes affecting the phonology of local varieties are processes such as <a href="/wiki/Yod-dropping" class="mw-redirect" title="Yod-dropping"><i>yod</i>-dropping</a>, <a href="/wiki/Yod-coalescence" class="mw-redirect" title="Yod-coalescence"><i>yod</i>-coalescence</a>, and reduction of consonant clusters.<sup id="cite_ref-166" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-166">[166]</a></sup>
</p><p><a href="/wiki/General_American" class="mw-redirect" title="General American">General American</a> and <a href="/wiki/Received_Pronunciation" title="Received Pronunciation">Received Pronunciation</a> vary in their pronunciation of historical <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/r/</span> after a vowel at the end of a syllable (in the <a href="/wiki/Syllable_coda" class="mw-redirect" title="Syllable coda">syllable coda</a>). GA is a <a href="/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents" class="mw-redirect" title="Rhotic and non-rhotic accents">rhotic dialect</a>, meaning that it pronounces <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/r/</span> at the end of a syllable, but RP is non-rhotic, meaning that it loses <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/r/</span> in that position. English dialects are classified as rhotic or non-rhotic depending on whether they elide <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/r/</span> like RP or keep it like GA.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELass2000114_167-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELass2000114-167">[167]</a></sup>
</p><p>There is complex dialectal variation in words with the <a href="/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_short_A" class="mw-redirect" title="Phonological history of English short A">open front</a> and <a href="/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_low_back_vowels" class="mw-redirect" title="Phonological history of English low back vowels">open back vowels</a> <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/æ ɑː ɒ ɔː/</span>. These four vowels are only distinguished in RP, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In GA, these vowels merge to three <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/æ ɑ ɔ/</span>,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWells1982xviii–xix_168-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWells1982xviii–xix-168">[168]</a></sup> and in Canadian English, they merge to two <span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/æ ɑ/</span>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWells1982493_169-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWells1982493-169">[169]</a></sup> In addition, the words that have each vowel vary by dialect. The table "Dialects and open vowels" shows this variation with <a href="/wiki/Lexical_set" title="Lexical set">lexical sets</a> in which these sounds occur.
</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Grammar">Grammar</span></h2>
<p>As is typical of an Indo-European language, English follows <a href="/wiki/Nominative%E2%80%93accusative_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Nominative–accusative language">accusative</a> <a href="/wiki/Morphosyntactic_alignment" title="Morphosyntactic alignment">morphosyntactic alignment</a>. Unlike other Indo-European languages though, English has largely abandoned the inflectional <a href="/wiki/Case_system" class="mw-redirect" title="Case system">case system</a> in favor of <a href="/wiki/Analytic_language" title="Analytic language">analytic</a> constructions. Only the <a href="/wiki/Personal_pronouns" class="mw-redirect" title="Personal pronouns">personal pronouns</a> retain morphological case more strongly than any other <a href="/wiki/Word_class" class="mw-redirect" title="Word class">word class</a>. English distinguishes at least seven major word classes: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, determiners (including articles), prepositions, and conjunctions. Some analyses add pronouns as a class separate from nouns, and subdivide conjunctions into subordinators and coordinators, and add the class of interjections.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum200222_170-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum200222-170">[170]</a></sup> English also has a rich set of auxiliary verbs, such as <i>have</i> and <i>do</i>, expressing the categories of mood and aspect. Questions are marked by <a href="/wiki/Do-support" title="Do-support">do-support</a>, <a href="/wiki/Wh-movement" title="Wh-movement">wh-movement</a> (fronting of question words beginning with <i>wh</i>-) and word order <a href="/wiki/Subject%E2%80%93auxiliary_inversion" title="Subject–auxiliary inversion">inversion</a> with some verbs.<sup id="cite_ref-EGT_171-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-EGT-171">[171]</a></sup>
</p><p>Some traits typical of Germanic languages persist in English, such as the distinction between irregularly inflected <a href="/wiki/Strong_inflection" title="Strong inflection">strong</a> stems inflected through <a href="/wiki/Ablaut" class="mw-redirect" title="Ablaut">ablaut</a> (i.e. changing the vowel of the stem, as in the pairs <i>speak/spoke</i> and <i>foot/feet</i>) and weak stems inflected through affixation (such as <i>love/loved</i>, <i>hand/hands</i>).<sup id="cite_ref-HOEL_172-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-HOEL-172">[172]</a></sup> Vestiges of the case and gender system are found in the pronoun system (<i>he/him, who/whom</i>) and in the inflection of the <a href="/wiki/Copula_(linguistics)" title="Copula (linguistics)">copula</a> verb <i>to be</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-HOEL_172-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-HOEL-172">[172]</a></sup>
</p><p>The seven word-classes are exemplified in this sample sentence:<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEAartsHaegeman2006118_173-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEAartsHaegeman2006118-173">[173]</a></sup>
</p>
<table style="text-align: center;">
<tbody><tr>
<td><i>The</i></td>
<td><i>chairman</i></td>
<td><i>of</i></td>
<td><i>the</i></td>
<td><i>committee</i></td>
<td><i>and</i></td>
<td><i>the</i></td>
<td><i>loquacious</i></td>
<td><i>politician</i></td>
<td><i>clashed</i></td>
<td><i>violently</i></td>
<td><i>when</i></td>
<td><i>the</i></td>
<td><i>meeting</i></td>
<td><i>started</i>.
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td>Det.</td>
<td>Noun</td>
<td>Prep.</td>
<td>Det.</td>
<td>Noun</td>
<td>Conj.</td>
<td>Det.</td>
<td>Adj.</td>
<td>Noun</td>
<td>Verb</td>
<td>Advb.</td>
<td>Conj.</td>
<td>Det.</td>
<td>Noun</td>
<td>Verb
</td></tr></tbody></table>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Nouns_and_noun_phrases">Nouns and noun phrases</span></h3>
<p>English nouns are only inflected for number and possession. New nouns can be formed through derivation or compounding. They are semantically divided into <a href="/wiki/Proper_nouns" class="mw-redirect" title="Proper nouns">proper nouns</a> (names) and common nouns. Common nouns are in turn divided into concrete and abstract nouns, and grammatically into <a href="/wiki/Count_noun" title="Count noun">count nouns</a> and <a href="/wiki/Mass_nouns" class="mw-redirect" title="Mass nouns">mass nouns</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPayneHuddleston2002_174-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEPayneHuddleston2002-174">[174]</a></sup>
</p><p>Most count nouns are inflected for plural number through the use of the plural <a href="/wiki/Suffix" title="Suffix">suffix</a> -<i>s</i>, but a few nouns have irregular plural forms. Mass nouns can only be pluralised through the use of a count noun classifier, e.g. <i>one loaf of bread</i>, <i>two loaves of bread</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum200256–57_175-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum200256–57-175">[175]</a></sup>
</p><p>Regular plural formation:
</p>
<ul><li>Singular: <i>cat, dog</i></li>
<li>Plural: <i>cats, dogs</i></li></ul>
<p>Irregular plural formation:
</p>
<ul><li>Singular: <i>man, woman, foot, fish, ox, knife, mouse</i></li>
<li>Plural: <i>men, women, feet, fish, oxen, knives, mice</i></li></ul>
<p>Possession can be expressed either by the possessive <a href="/wiki/Enclitic" class="mw-redirect" title="Enclitic">enclitic</a> -<i>s</i> (also traditionally called a genitive suffix), or by the preposition <i>of</i>. Historically the -s possessive has been used for animate nouns, whereas the <i>of</i> possessive has been reserved for inanimate nouns. Today this distinction is less clear, and many speakers use -<i>s</i> also with inanimates. Orthographically the possessive -s is separated from a singular noun with an apostrophe. If the noun is plural formed with -s the apostrophe follows the -s.<sup id="cite_ref-EGT_171-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-EGT-171">[171]</a></sup>
</p><p>Possessive constructions:
</p>
<ul><li>With -s: <i>The woman's husband's child</i></li>
<li>With of: <i>The child of the husband of the woman</i></li></ul>
<p>Nouns can form <a href="/wiki/Noun_phrase" title="Noun phrase">noun phrases</a> (NPs) where they are the syntactic head of the words that depend on them such as determiners, quantifiers, conjunctions or adjectives.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum200255_176-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum200255-176">[176]</a></sup> Noun phrases can be short, such as <i>the man</i>, composed only of a determiner and a noun. They can also include modifiers such as adjectives (e.g. <i>red</i>, <i>tall</i>, <i>all</i>) and specifiers such as determiners (e.g. <i>the</i>, <i>that</i>). But they can also tie together several nouns into a single long NP, using conjunctions such as <i>and</i>, or prepositions such as <i>with</i>, e.g. <i>the tall man with the long red trousers and his skinny wife with the spectacles</i> (this NP uses conjunctions, prepositions, specifiers, and modifiers). Regardless of length, an NP functions as a syntactic unit.<sup id="cite_ref-EGT_171-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-EGT-171">[171]</a></sup> For example, the possessive enclitic can, in cases which do not lead to ambiguity, follow the entire noun phrase, as in <i>The President of India's wife</i>, where the enclitic follows <i>India</i> and not <i>President</i>.
</p><p>The class of determiners is used to specify the noun they precede in terms of <a href="/wiki/Definiteness" title="Definiteness">definiteness</a>, where <i>the</i> marks a definite noun and <i>a</i> or <i>an</i> an indefinite one. A definite noun is assumed by the speaker to be already known by the interlocutor, whereas an indefinite noun is not specified as being previously known. Quantifiers, which include <i>one</i>, <i>many</i>, <i>some</i> and <i>all</i>, are used to specify the noun in terms of quantity or number. The noun must agree with the number of the determiner, e.g. <i>one man</i> (sg.) but <i>all men</i> (pl.). Determiners are the first constituents in a noun phrase.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum200254–5_177-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum200254–5-177">[177]</a></sup>
</p>
<h4><span class="mw-headline" id="Adjectives">Adjectives</span></h4>
<p>Adjectives modify a noun by providing additional information about their referents. In English, adjectives come before the nouns they modify and after determiners.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum200257_178-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum200257-178">[178]</a></sup> In Modern English, adjectives are not inflected so as to <a href="/wiki/Agreement_(linguistics)" title="Agreement (linguistics)">agree</a> in form with the noun they modify, as adjectives in most other Indo-European languages do. For example, in the phrases <i>the slender boy</i>, and <i>many slender girls</i>, the adjective <i>slender</i> does not change form to agree with either the number or gender of the noun.
</p><p>Some adjectives are inflected for <a href="/wiki/Comparison_(grammar)" title="Comparison (grammar)">degree of comparison</a>, with the positive degree unmarked, the suffix <i>-er</i> marking the comparative, and <i>-est</i> marking the superlative: <i>a small boy</i>, <i>the boy is smaller than the girl</i>, <i>that boy is the smallest</i>. Some adjectives have irregular comparative and superlative forms, such as <i>good</i>, <i>better</i>, and <i>best</i>. Other adjectives have comparatives formed by <a href="/wiki/Periphrasis" title="Periphrasis">periphrastic constructions</a>, with the adverb <i>more</i> marking the comparative, and <i>most</i> marking the superlative: <i>happier</i> or <i>more happy</i>, <i>the happiest</i> or <i>most happy</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKönig1994540_179-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKönig1994540-179">[179]</a></sup> There is some variation among speakers regarding which adjectives use inflected or periphrastic comparison, and some studies have shown a tendency for the periphrastic forms to become more common at the expense of the inflected form.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMair2006148–49_180-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMair2006148–49-180">[180]</a></sup>
</p>
<h4><span id="Pronouns.2C_case.2C_and_person"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Pronouns,_case,_and_person">Pronouns, case, and person</span></h4>
<p>English pronouns conserve many traits of case and gender inflection. The personal pronouns retain a difference between subjective and objective case in most persons (<i>I/me, he/him, she/her, we/us, they/them</i>) as well as a gender and animateness distinction in the third person singular (distinguishing <i>he/she/it</i>). The <a href="/wiki/Subjective_case" class="mw-redirect" title="Subjective case">subjective case</a> corresponds to the Old English <a href="/wiki/Nominative_case" title="Nominative case">nominative case</a>, and the <a href="/wiki/Objective_case" class="mw-redirect" title="Objective case">objective case</a> is used in the sense both of the previous <a href="/wiki/Accusative_case" title="Accusative case">accusative case</a> (for a patient, or direct object of a transitive verb), and of the Old English dative case (for a recipient or <a href="/wiki/Indirect_object" class="mw-redirect" title="Indirect object">indirect object</a> of a transitive verb).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELeech200669_181-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELeech200669-181">[181]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEO'Dwyer2006_182-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEO'Dwyer2006-182">[182]</a></sup> The subjective is used when the pronoun is the subject of a finite clause, otherwise the objective is used.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGreenbaumNelson2002_183-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGreenbaumNelson2002-183">[183]</a></sup> While grammarians such as <a href="/wiki/Henry_Sweet" title="Henry Sweet">Henry Sweet</a><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESweet201452_184-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESweet201452-184">[184]</a></sup> and <a href="/wiki/Otto_Jespersen" title="Otto Jespersen">Otto Jespersen</a><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJespersen2007173–185_185-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEJespersen2007173–185-185">[185]</a></sup> noted that the English cases did not correspond to the traditional Latin-based system, some contemporary grammars, for example <a href="#CITEREFHuddlestonPullum2002">Huddleston & Pullum (2002)</a>, retain traditional labels for the cases, calling them nominative and accusative cases respectively.
</p><p>Possessive pronouns exist in dependent and independent forms; the dependent form functions as a determiner specifying a noun (as in <i>my chair</i>), while the independent form can stand alone as if it were a noun (e.g. <i>the chair is mine</i>).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum2002425–26_186-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHuddlestonPullum2002425–26-186">[186]</a></sup> The English system of grammatical person no longer has a distinction between formal and informal pronouns of address (the old 2nd person singular familiar pronoun <i><a href="/wiki/Thou" title="Thou">thou</a></i> acquired a pejorative or inferior tinge of meaning and was abandoned), and the forms for 2nd person plural and singular are identical except in the reflexive form. Some dialects have introduced innovative 2nd person plural pronouns such as <i>y'all</i> found in <a href="/wiki/Southern_American_English" title="Southern American English">Southern American English</a> and <a href="/wiki/African_American_Vernacular_English" class="mw-redirect" title="African American Vernacular English">African American (Vernacular) English</a> or <i>youse</i> found in <a href="/wiki/Australian_English" title="Australian English">Australian English</a> and <i>ye</i> in <a href="/wiki/Hiberno-English" title="Hiberno-English">Hiberno-English</a>.
</p>
<table class="wikitable">
<caption>English personal pronouns
</caption>
<tbody><tr>
<th scope="col">Person
</th>
<th scope="col">Subjective case
</th>
<th scope="col">Objective case
</th>
<th scope="col">Dependent possessive
</th>
<th scope="col">Independent possessive
</th>
<th scope="col">Reflexive
</th></tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">1st p. sg.
</th>
<td><i>I</i></td>
<td><i>me</i></td>
<td><i>my</i></td>
<td><i>mine</i></td>
<td><i>myself</i>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">2nd p. sg.
</th>
<td><i>you</i></td>
<td><i>you</i></td>
<td><i>your</i></td>
<td><i>yours</i></td>
<td><i>yourself</i>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">3rd p. sg.
</th>
<td><i>he/she/it</i></td>
<td><i>him/her/it</i></td>
<td><i>his/her/its</i></td>