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Growth of English as a world language (Some details about the growth of…
Growth of English as a world language
Some details about the growth of English
The first people who established the first European settlements on the American continent spoke and spread English throughout the whole continent. :USA & Canada
Europeans traded and colonised many of the Carribean Islands. English was the common trade language. :Bahamas, Bermuda & Jamaica
Captain James Cook claimed parts of the Australian continent for Britain. Colonies of convicts were established as Britain had problems with overcrowded prisons. It started of with a colony of 1000 prisoners which is now an English-speaking country of 20 million people.
NZ became a British colony in 1841. It was first used for whalers, but the mild climate proved suitable for farming and attracted Brititsh and Irish immigrants
The British East India Company came to india to trade goods like tea, cotton & spices. British took more and more control, and it became an official colony in 1858. India was later divided into the independent English speaking countries of India and Pakistan
Slaves attracted British traders on the African continent, but colonies were soon established. Britain controlled about 30% of African population, and English is now an official language in a number of African nations.
Why English?
English is a flexible language with elements from other languages. This is evident in the English vocabulary, which contains words from: greek, Latin, ancient Norse, French & many of the native languages of the british colonies
The grammar of English is not too complex, it relies more on word than on inflectional forms. So it`s not hard to learn for foreigners.
The spelling has almost remained unchanged for 100 years!
English today
There is not just one English language, and spoken English varies a lot throughout the world
British, Irish, American, Australian, South African, Indian etc.
There are regional and local dialects within each one of these categories too, The regional varieties differ in many respects, but more in terms of pronunciation, intonation and vocabularly than in grammatical structure.
More than one language
First language in countries like: Canada, Australia, NZ, the Bahamas, Jamaica and South Africa.
Second language in more than 60 countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria
In several countries you can explore different ways of how the English language is written and spoken. In countries like Jamaica, India and Sierra Leone, they have their versiones of language which i based on the English dictionary
Jamaica: Creole & standard English
Sierra Leone: Krio
India
From Anglo-Saxon to world language