English | ||||
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Pronunciation | /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ | |||
Region | British Isles (originally) Worldwide | |||
Native speakers | 360–400 million (date missing) L2 speakers: 400 million; as a foreign language: 600–700 million{ | |||
Language family | ||||
Early forms: | ||||
Writing system | ||||
Official status | ||||
Official language in | Various organisations | |||
Language codes | ||||
ISO 639-1 | en | |||
ISO 639-2 | eng | |||
ISO 639-3 | eng | |||
Linguasphere | 52-ABA | |||
Countries of the world where English is a majority native language Countries where English is official but not a majority native language | ||||
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English is a language that started in Anglo-Saxon England. It is originally from Anglo-Frisian and Old Saxon dialects. English is now a global language. It is used worldwide. There are about 375 million native speakers (people who use it as their first language) in the world.
Frisian is the language closest to English. The vocabulary of English was influenced by other Germanic languages in the early Middle Ages and later by Romance languages, especially French.