The English Language

Это интересно

1. Почти половина человечества говорит на 5 языках: ки­тайском, английском, хинди, русском и испанском.

2. Самый сложный в мире язык — китайский (более 20 миллионов иероглифов).

3. Русский язык считается очень сложным для иностранцев.

4. К трудным языкам также относятся: арабский язык (44 падежа) и язык североамериканских индейцев (70 при­ставок).

5. Самый легкий язык — гавайский (6 согласных букв и 5 гласных букв).

6. Согласно исследованиям британских ученых, самым веж­ливым языком признан язык эскимосов из Гренландии. В нем нет ни одного ругательного или обидного слова.

7. По статистике ООН на изучение своего родного языка больше всех тратят англичане — около 8 лет.

It is only during the last hundred years that English has become one of the world's most important languages. In Shakespeare's days English as well as Russian was "a provincial language", a language of secondary importance. People spoke mostly French, Italian, German and some other languages.

Today English has become one of the most important and universal languages in the world. It is used in politics, economy, science, medicine, technology, business and trade, tourism and cultural relations.

A lot of various articles about important scientific discoveries and achievements are published in English. Great deal of information for computers (over 80%) is written in English. It is also the major working language of most international congresses and seminars, conferences and symposiums.

In the total number of speakers, English holds the second place only to Chinese. It is the native language (or mother tongue) for many people from various countries. It is the official language of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America, Australia and Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and some other states. It is also spoken as the second official language by many people in India, Pakistan, numerous countries of Africa, to say nothing of the people all over the world, who know English as a foreign language.

English holds the first place in the world among the foreign languages taught at schools, colleges, lyceums and higher educational establishments. To know English is now necessary to get a good job in many countries. Today English is the main means for various business and social contacts with numerous foreign partners.

All English-speaking nations have one common language, English, but it is not the same with all of them. Languages are constantly changing and English is no exception. National features, historic and cultural changes in different countries brought changes into the language too. In some countries old English words got new meanings, while in others new terms were needed because there appeared new and un-English things.

In addition, a lot of new words were borrowed from other languages: Indian, Eskimo, Gaelic and others, to say nothing of such languages as: Danish, French, German, Spanish, Greek, Italian and Latin. In fact, English has become a mixture of numerous languages.

Nowadays there exist several variants of English on the Globe: British, American, Canadian, Australian, Irish, etc. There are numerous differences between them in intonation, pronunciation and grammatical constructions. However, the most noticeable difference is in the vocabulary.

Among all these variants of English two ones occupy special places: the British English (as the standard literary language) and the American English (due to the USA great influence in the world).

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29