Theory of English UN SMA 2011
>> Sunday, February 20, 2011
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria. Following the economic, political, military, scientific, cultural, and colonial influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 18th century, via the British Empire, and of the United States since the mid-20th century, it has been widely dispersed around the world, become the leading language of international discourse, and has acquired use as lingua franca in many regions. It is the third most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
Historically, English originated from the fusion of languages and dialects, now collectively termed Old English, which were brought to the eastern coast of Great Britain by Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) settlers by the 5th century – with the word English being derived from the name of the Angles.
The language was further influenced by the Old Norse language due to Viking invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries.
The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman-French, and vocabulary and spelling conventions began to give the superficial appearance of a close relationship with Romance languages to what had now become Middle English. The Great Vowel Shift that began in the south of England in the 15th century is one of the historical events that mark the emergence of Modern English from Middle English.
Download Theory of English UN SMA 2011 according to grid UN 2010/2011
Owing to the significant assimilation of various European languages throughout history, modern English contains a very large vocabulary. The Oxford English Dictionary lists over 250,000 distinct words, not including many technical or slang terms, or words that belong to multiple word classes.
Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant language or in some instances even the required international language of communications, science, information technology, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Following the British colonization of North America, it became the dominant language in the United States and in Canada. The growing economic and cultural influence of the US and its status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's spread across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is one of six official languages of the United Nations.
One impact of the growth of English has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, and its influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. In today's market English is an international language of business and communication, but lately its status in the Internet environment is endangered.
From the very creation of the world wide web English has been first and top language in the Internet environment and still is. It is not a secret that the Internet was created on the basis of English language, but Chinese is claiming to overtake this new global trend of the virtual world.
About 2 billion people are in the present world wide web; 42% of them communicate in English and 32.6% - Chinese. Considering the rapid growth of Chinese population (12-13 million each year), the number of Chinese language users increases, which in a time will exceed the number of English speakers.
And China manages to turn this situation into its own advantage. The Government has demanded to translate all English phrases and expressions used into the native language. Government has also forbidden using those English words in mass media, press, and websites. Argumentation: the use of foreign words lowers language purity. Only separate words and abbreviations are allowed to be used in separate cases on the understanding that translation and explanation in Chinese follows right after them. Breach of this rule will be fined.
Historically, English originated from the fusion of languages and dialects, now collectively termed Old English, which were brought to the eastern coast of Great Britain by Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) settlers by the 5th century – with the word English being derived from the name of the Angles.
The language was further influenced by the Old Norse language due to Viking invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries.
The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman-French, and vocabulary and spelling conventions began to give the superficial appearance of a close relationship with Romance languages to what had now become Middle English. The Great Vowel Shift that began in the south of England in the 15th century is one of the historical events that mark the emergence of Modern English from Middle English.
Download Theory of English UN SMA 2011 according to grid UN 2010/2011
Owing to the significant assimilation of various European languages throughout history, modern English contains a very large vocabulary. The Oxford English Dictionary lists over 250,000 distinct words, not including many technical or slang terms, or words that belong to multiple word classes.
Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant language or in some instances even the required international language of communications, science, information technology, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Following the British colonization of North America, it became the dominant language in the United States and in Canada. The growing economic and cultural influence of the US and its status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's spread across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is one of six official languages of the United Nations.
One impact of the growth of English has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, and its influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. In today's market English is an international language of business and communication, but lately its status in the Internet environment is endangered.
From the very creation of the world wide web English has been first and top language in the Internet environment and still is. It is not a secret that the Internet was created on the basis of English language, but Chinese is claiming to overtake this new global trend of the virtual world.
About 2 billion people are in the present world wide web; 42% of them communicate in English and 32.6% - Chinese. Considering the rapid growth of Chinese population (12-13 million each year), the number of Chinese language users increases, which in a time will exceed the number of English speakers.
And China manages to turn this situation into its own advantage. The Government has demanded to translate all English phrases and expressions used into the native language. Government has also forbidden using those English words in mass media, press, and websites. Argumentation: the use of foreign words lowers language purity. Only separate words and abbreviations are allowed to be used in separate cases on the understanding that translation and explanation in Chinese follows right after them. Breach of this rule will be fined.
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