Why should we learn English? What is the origin of English?

English belongs to the west Germanic branch of Germanic family in Indo-European language family, which evolved from the languages spoken by Anglo-Saxon Germanic tribes and jute tribes who immigrated from the European continent in ancient times and spread to all parts of the world through active British colonization. Due to contact with many national languages in history, vocabulary has changed from unitary to pluralistic, grammar has changed from "more inflections" to "less inflections", and pronunciation has changed regularly. According to the number of native English speakers, English may be the third or fourth largest language in the world (380,000,000 people in 1999), but it is the most widely used second language in the world. More than 60% of letters in the world are written in English, and more than 50% of newspapers and magazines are in English. The leading position of Britain and America in culture, economy, military, politics and science in the past two centuries has made English a quasi-international language. English is one of the working languages of the United Nations.

The closest thing to English is undoubtedly Frisian, which is still used in Frisian province in the north of the Netherlands, with about 500 thousand users. Some people think Scottish is an independent language close to English, while others think it is a dialect of English. Scots, low Saxons in eastern Holland and people in northern Germany are also very close to English. Other related languages include Dutch, Afrikaans and German. The Normans conquered Britain in the 1 1 century, bringing a large number of French words and greatly enriching English words.

Early Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians) immigrated to England, and English was passed down from their language changes. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, around 449 AD, King Vilti of the British Isles invited his "Anglo relatives" to help him fight against the Picts, so he returned the territory of Southeast Angles. Then he sought further support, and Saxons, Angles and Jutes came one after another. Chronicles record that these "immigrants" eventually established seven kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex and Wessex.

After the Germanic invasion, they ruled the local Celts, and the local languages mainly survived in Scotland, Wales, Kangwa and Irish Island. The language of these invaders gradually formed "Old English", which is very similar to modern Frisian. English (English), England and East Anglia have developed from the words that describe the Angles: English, English and Angelcynn.

In the 9th century, Scandinavians invaded northern England on a large scale. At the end of the ninth century, the invaders occupied almost the whole eastern half of Britain. Scandinavians speak North Germanic. There is not much difference between North Germanic and West Germanic. Due to the invasion of Scandinavians, a large number of Scandinavian words (represented by Old Scandinavian) entered the vocabulary of Old English. There are many synonyms between ancient Norse and old English. Therefore, ancient Norse vocabulary often replaces old English vocabulary in English vocabulary.

1066 for 300 years after the Norman conquest, the king of England only spoke French. So a large number of French words entered Old English, and Old English itself lost most of its twists and turns, forming Middle English. The vowel movement around 1500 transforms Middle English into modern English. The most famous literary work in Old English is Beowulf, while the most famous literary work in Middle English is Canterbury Tales.

Modern English began to flourish in Shakespeare's time. Some scholars divided it into early modern English and late modern English, and the dividing line was about 1800. With the British occupation and colonization of most parts of the world, the local language has greatly influenced the development of English.

English loanwords have a wide etymology. Influenced by French, English vocabulary can be roughly divided into Germanic etymology (mostly from old English) and Latin etymology (mostly from Latin, mostly from Norman French, and some directly borrowed from Latin).

1973, Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff published Ordered Profusion, in which a report was published, and about 80,000 words in the old concise Oxford Dictionary (3rd edition) were investigated by computer. The report shows that English words come from the following sources:

French, including Old French and Early Anglo French: 28.3%

Latin: Latin vocabulary including modern science and technology: 28.24%

Old English and Middle English, Old Norwegian and Dutch: 25%

Greek: 5.32%

Unknown: 4.03%

From proper nouns: 3.28%

Other languages: less than 1%