History
The English language is such an important part of global culture that it is hard to think that it was just introduced 1500 years ago. Before that time, languages like Greek and Latin dominated the widespread culture. With the decline of Roman Empire in the 5th century, Latin language began to lose its influence and this paved the way for English to rise as a prominent language. It was originated in Britain in around 550 AD and Anglo-Saxon settlers are responsible for the origination of the language. The English they spoke at that time was completely different than the English we hear today. It was known as Old English at that time. Overtime, the English language has become more diverse and thousands of new words have been added into the English language. Every year the English dictionary gets heavier with more words added in to the vocabulary.
Some Amazing Facts About The English Language
Speakers
There are almost 1.5 billion speakers of the English language. Out of which around 360 million have English as their first language.
Language Family
English belongs to the West Germanic family of languages.
Addition of Words
A new word is added in to the English language after every two hours. This means that every day 12 new words are added in the formal English vocabulary.
Pangram Sentence
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. This might seem like just another sentence from the English language. However it is a pangram sentence. A pangram sentence is a sentence which has used all 26 letters from the English alphabets.
Shortest Sentence In The English Language
The shortest sentence in the English language is “I am”. Some people even consider “Go” as the shortest sentence.
English And The Internet
Around 80% of all content and information stored on the internet is in the English Language.
Official Language
English is the official language of 67 countries and surprisingly The USA isn’t one of them. However bills have been presented in the US Congress to label English as the official language of the country.
You Can Spell The Sound ‘ee’ In Seven Different Ways
Check the following words to understand all seven of those ways;
He
See
Believed
Seize
Seas
Caesar
People
Longest English Word
Titin is a form of protein. Its scientific name is 189819 letters long. However the modern dictionary coins Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis as the longest word in the English language. It is 45 letters long. Uncopyrightable is the longest word where no letter is repeated. The longest word in the English language without a vowel is Rhythm.
Vowels
There are five major vowels in the English language. These are A, E, I, O and U. Sometimes Y is also considered as a vowel.
Pronunciation of Ough
Did you know that the combination of these four letters in the same sequence can be pronounced in nine different ways. For example rough , dough, coughed , hiccoughed ,slough ,borough , though ,through and plough.
The Importance of the word “Dreamt”
Dreamt is the only word in the English language that end with ‘mt’. No other word in the language has ‘mt’ at the end of it.
The Common Letters (S, E and I)
Did you know that most of the words in the English language start with the letter S. Whereas the letter E is the most common letter used in the respective language. Where E is considered as the most common letter in the English language, I is considered as the most common word in the language. It is also the shortest word in the respective language as well.
Bookkeeper
Bookkeeper is the only word in the English language that has 3 sets of consecutive double letters. You can also find few other words however they have to be hyphenated whereas bookkeeper does not have to be hyphenated.
Ghost Words
These words aren’t something taken from the language of the undead. Rather , they are words that were mistakenly added into the English language due to misprinting errors. One such example is the word ‘dord’. It remained in the English dictionary for 8 years in the 1900s.
Oldest English Word
The word ‘town’ is the oldest known English word that is still used in the current times.
English Language Changes Overtime
Overtime many words in the English language changed meaning. For example the word awful used to mean full of awe or inspiring wonder. We all know what it means now. In addition to this there are also many other words in the English language whose meanings have drastically changed.
SWIMS (Ambigram)
The word SWIMS is an ambigram which means that it is read the same way even if it is turned upside down.
English And Pilots
English is globally the most influential language. This is why all pilots who fly international flights should know how to speak and communicate in the English language.
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