The Growth and Expansion of English

English is part of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. By year 1000, the English language consisted of approximately 40 000 words. Nowadays, the number has grown to more than 500 000. If we calculate the average of words created per century, this comes to 46 000. A great number of words found in the English vocabulary was borrowed from Latin, French, Low German, and the Scandinavian languages. We also know that some periods were more fertile than others: invasions, contact with other cultures, inventions, technological progress, music, fashion are some of the factors which have helped to enrich the language.

British colonialism in the 19th century and American capitalism and technological progress in the 20th century were undoubtedly the main causes for the spread of English throughout the world.

From around 1750 to 1950 the British Empire covered about a quarter of the globe. It was one of the most powerful empires the world has ever known. The colonies gradually freed themselves but about fifty countries chose to keep a connection with Britain by belonging to the The British Commonwealth. English is spoken all over the Commonwealth either as a native or an official language, and the British monarch is the symbolic head of the association.

The USA has played a leading role in most domains for the last hundred years. At the end of the 19th century and first quarter of the 20th, it welcomed millions of European immigrants who had fled their countries ravaged by war, poverty or famine. This labour force strenghtened American industries and development. The Hollywood film industry also attracted many foreign artists in quest of fame and fortune and the number of American films produced every year soon flooded the market. Before the Treaty of Versailles(1919), which ended the First World War between Germany and the Allies, diplomacy was conducted in French. However, President Wilson succeeded in having the treaty in English as well. Since then, English started being used in diplomacy and gradually in economic relations and the media. During the II World War, America intervened both militarily and economically to save Europe from chaos. From then onwards, the United States have consolidated their cultural, economical and technological power: inventions, rock and roll, the first man on the moon, the revolution of the Internet, the country's growing prosperity and commercial aggressiveness have contributed to the further expansion and importance of English in the world today.

3. It’s interesting to know

The status of English as a country 's official language does not necessarily correlate with the number of English - speakers in this country. India, for example, with a population of 1.1 billion, has fewer than 200,000 native speakers of English and approximately 100 million second-language English speakers (who form less than 10% of its population). Nigeria,on the other hand, has a small percentage of Standard English second-language speakers; however, more than 60% of its population speak Nigerian Pidgin English,which, although not a dialect of English,does contain many English words and possesses an English-like grammatical structure

In some countries English is the dominant language, but it does not have an official status. In Australia, English is spoken by the vast majority of the population and is the only language used in government institutions, yet Australia does nut have an official language. This is the same in the U.S. and the UK, although some states within the U.S. or regions within the UK have English as an official language.

Almost all of these countries are current or former colonies or dependencies of the UK or the United States (the latter also started as a British colony) The notable exception is Madagascar, which is a former French colony with English speaking neighbours.

These nations total 2.135 billion people and cover 15583,152 square miles.

5. Ниже приведены советы по изучению английского языка. Ознакомьтесь с ними и ответьте на вопросы:

1) Do you agree with them?

2) Can you add anything else?

Continents, Countries & Nationalities

1. Изучите таблицу и запомните основные суффиксы образования прилагательных:

· All country names are unique. They are not similar to language or nationality names.

· Language and nationality names are often, but not always similar. For example: French - the language, and French the nationality are the same in the case of France. However, English - the language, and American - the nationality are not the same in the case of The United States.

· All countries, languages and nationalities are always capitalized in English. This is because country, language and nationality names are proper names of countries, languages and nationalities.

Pronunciation File	Country	Language	Nationality
One syllable	France	French	French
	Greece	Greek	Greek
ends in '-ish'	Britain	English	British
	Denmark	Danish	Danish
	Finland	Finnish	Finnish
	Poland	Polish	Polish
	Spain	Spanish	Spanish
	Sweden	Swedish	Swedish
	Turkey	Turkish	Turkish
ends in '-an'	Germany	German	German
	Mexico	Spanish	Mexican
	The United States	English	American
ends in '-ian' or '-ean'	Australia	English	Australian
	Brazil	Portuguese	Brazilian
	Egypt	Arabic	Egyptian
	Italy	Italian	Italian
	Hungary	Hungarian	Hungarian
	Korea	Korean	Korean
	Russia	Russian	Russian
ends in '-ese'	China	Chinese	Chinese
	Japan	Japanese	Japanese
	Portugal	Portuguese	Portuguese

2. Составьте предложения по образцу, используя таблицу:

Model: She comes from France. She is French. Her nationality is French.

She is a Frenchwoman. She drives a French car. She speaks French.

3. Вставьте прилагательные, обозначающие национальность:

1. I am from the United States. I am... 2. Juan is from Mexico. He is.... Kavita is from India. She is... 4. Hiro is from Japan. He is... 5. Kosin is from Thailan. He is... 6. Steve is from Canada. He is... 7. Yao is Chinese. He is from.... 8. Alice is Colombian. She is from... 9. Xavier is Dominican. He is from the.... 10. Lidia is from Russia. She is... 11. Sabastian is French. He is from… 12. Rosalie is Italian. She is from... 13. Mary is Polish. She is from... 14. Abdul is from Saudi Arabia. He is...

Напишите в каждую колонку не менее 5 прилагательных:

-n, -an, ian	-ese	-ish	other

Coversational Topic

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