World Status of the English Language
English belongs to the Indo-European family like most languages spoken in Europe and northern India, as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.
Within the Indo-European family, English belongs to the GERMANIC LANGUAGE GROUP together with German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, etc. More particularly, English belongs to the Western Germanic language subgroup and bears particular affinity to Frisian, spoken in the Netherlands. It differs from the Germano-Dutch subgroup including German and its dialects, as well as Dutch. The northern Germanic language group includes Danish, Swedish, Norwegian (including Bokmål and Nynorsk), Faroese, and Icelandic.
|Eastern Germanic||Gothic (dead language since 14th century A.D.)|
(1) Anglo-frisian: English and Frisian
2.1 Low German: Northern German, Dutch and Flemish, Low Saxon, Afrikaans, etc.
2.2 High German
1) Middle German: Rhine Franconian (Lorraine, Palatine), Hessian, Moselle Franconian, Luxembourgish, Ripuarian, Thuringian, and Upper Saxon
2) Upper German: Standard German, South Bavarian, Swabian, Low Alemannic (Alsatian), High Alemannic, Upper Alemannic, East Franconian, Yiddish, and Pensilfaanisch
|Northern Germanic||Danish, Swedish, Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk), Faroese, Icelandic|
Germanic languages share a common ancestor spoken by the Germanic peoples when they were concentrated in Northern Europe. This original language, called Common Germanic ( Urgermanisch in German), was used around 1000 A.D. We have no written texts in this language, which is to the Germanic languages what Latin is to the Romance languages. We know little about this donor language, but comparison of documented languages points to three linguistic subsets that arose through later fragmentation: Eastern Germanic (ostic languages), Western Germanic (westic languages), and Northern Germanic (nordic languages).
The table below briefly illustrates the similarities between certain Germanic languages:
While not all words in Germanic languages resemble each other, similarities are relatively normal. Still, many words differ from one Germanic language to the next, especially English due to its Latin and French influence.
English is the mother language of an estimated 341 million people and the second language of 508 million people in over sixty countries and states where it enjoys the status of official or co-official language, including American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Botswana, the British Virgin Islands, Cameroon, Canada, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guyana, Independent State of Samoa, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Malta, the Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Micronesia, Montserrat, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Island, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The following table lists the states and countries where English is the official or co-official language, along with their total population, which does not reflect the actual number of English speakers:
Population (in millions)
|Antigua and Barbuda||Africa||67,000||English|
|British Virgin Islands||Americas||20,000||English|
|Cameroon*||Africa||15,3 M||French, English|
|Canada*||Americas||29,6 M||French, English|
|Cayman Islands (U.K.)||Americas||39,000||English|
|Cook Islands (New Zealand)||Pacific||19,000||English|
|Fiji *||Pacific||796,000||English, Fijian|
|Hong-Kong* (China)||Asia||6,1 M||English, Cantonese|
|India*||Asia||1,000 M||Hindi, English|
|Ireland*||Europe||3,9 M||English, Irish|
|Kenya*||Africa||29,0 M||English, Swahili|
|Lesotho*||Africa||2,0 M||English, Sesotho|
|Marshall Islands (U.S.A.)||Pacific||60,000||English|
|Namibia*||Africa||2,1 M||English, Afrikaans|
|New Zealand *||Pacific||3,5 M||English, Maori|
|Niue Island (New Zealand)||Pacific||2,082||English|
|Norfolk Island (Australia)||Pacific||1,700||English|
|Northern Marianas (U.S.A.)||Pacific||84,000||English|
|Pakistan*||Asia||141,5 M||English, Urdu|
|Palau* (U.S.A.)||Pacific||19,000||English, Palauan|
|Papua New Guinea||Pacific||4,5 M||English|
|Philippines*||Asia||69,9 M||English, Tagalog|
|Puerto Rico* (U.S.A.)||Americas||3,9 M||Spanish, English|
|Rwanda*||Africa||1,3 M||Kinyarwanda, French, English|
|Seychelles*||Africa||79,000||English, French, Creole|
|Sierra Leone||Africa||4,7 M||English|
|Singapore*||Asia||3,4 M||English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil|
|South Africa *||Africa||39,3 M||Afrikaans, English|
|Tokelau (New Zealand)||Pacific||1,000||English|
|United Kingdom||Europe||58,2 M||English|
|United States||Americas||274,0 M||English|
|U.S. Virgin Islands||Americas||94,000||English|
|Vanuatu*||Pacific||191,000||English, French, Beach-la-Mar|
Countries where English is the majority mother tongue include the United States (76%), the United Kingdom (94.8%), Canada (59.3%), the Republic of Ireland (92.3%), Australia (95%), and New Zealand (91.4%). Together, these five countries form the foundation of English as a mother tongue in the world. They include approximately 306 million actual speakers and a potential of 374 million.
English is the mother tongue of a fairly insignificant portion of the population in all other countries except South Africa (5.7% or two million people). However, if we add the number of native English speakers in the countries listed above to those in India, Africa, and Oceania, the total increases from 306 million to 374 million. This is the number of English speakers (or anglophones) in the world, strictly speaking.
Below is a map of English-speaking countries in the world:
Source: Map reproduced with the kind permission of Mr. Mikael Parkvall
of Institutionen för lingvistik, University of Stockholm
English in Canada
English is the official language of Canadian federal bodies, together with French. According to the 2001 census, it is also the mother tongue of 59.3% of the population. Out of 29.6 million Canadians, 17.5 million are native English speakers, while 6.7 million are native French speakers (22.7%) and 5.2 million speak another mother tongue (17.6%). Representing nearly 60% of the population, anglophones are the linguistic majority in Canada.
Source: For more information, please see the Atlas of Canada at http://atlas.gc.ca/