General Information about the English Language

Handout 4

Number of English Language Speakers

Estimated 1.5 - 2 billion

Native speakers 360 - 400 million; the greatest number of native speakers comes from
the United States; India has the second largest population of native speakers
As of 2003, Non-native speakers outnumbered native speakers by 3 to 1.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-speaking_world

History of the English Language

Old-English or Anglo-Saxon (c. 550-1066 CE)
• The Anglo-Saxons settled Britain.
• During this time the language was divided into four dialects.
• An educational reform by King Alfred made English the standard variety across the
region.
• This language is very different from Modern English

Middle English (8th-12th centuries)

• Middle English began with the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in
1066.
• During this time the language came in to contact with Old Norman language, which
is close to French.
• The language developed between more 1200-1450.

Early Modern English (1500-1700)

• Began with the Great Vowel Shift (1350-1700) which included changing the stressed
long vowels
• Explains irregularities in spelling
• In 1476 William Caxton developed the printing press, which help spread English
• During this period we have the works of William Shakespeare and the King James
Bible

Modern English (Late 18th )

• The British Empire help spread English with colonization.
• English adopted in parts of North America, parts of Africa, Australia
• The dominance of English further spread with the rise of the cultural and economic
influence of the United States
• Broadcasting corporations such as the BBC helped further spread the language

Reference: Crystal D.,(2003) English as a Global Language . Cambridge University

Press: Cambridge.

Number of Words in the English Language

According to research conducted by Harvard and Google in 2010, there are 1,022,000
words in the English language.

• Many of these words are no longer in use.

• A more realistic number of the actual words would be 171,476.
• In the second edition of the Oxford English dictionary contains 600,000.

Reference: https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/language-lab/many-words-english-language/