The English language

English
Pronunciation	/ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/
Region	Worldwide
Native speakers	360–400 million (2006) L2 speakers: 400 million; as a foreign language: 600–700 million
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Anglo-Frisian Anglic English
Early forms	Old English Middle English Early Modern English
Writing system	Latin script (English alphabet) English Braille, Unified English Braille
Signed forms	Manually coded English (multiple systems)
Official status
Official language in	67 countries 27 non-sovereign entities Various organisations United Nations European Union Commonwealth of Nations Council of Europe ICC IOC ISO NATO WTO NAFTA OAS OECD OIC OPEC GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development PIF UKUSA Agreement ASEAN ASEAN Economic Community SAARC CARICOM Turkic Council ECO
Language codes
ISO 639-1	en
ISO 639-2	eng
ISO 639-3
Glottolog	stan1293
Linguasphere	52-ABA
Anglosphere   Official as majority language   Official as minority language   Co-official as majority language   Co-official as minority language   Unofficial   Not official as majority language   Not official as minority language   No data
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English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now the third most widespread native language in the world, after Standard Chinese and Spanish, as well as the most widely spoken Germanic language. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, it ultimately derives its name from the Anglia (Angeln) peninsula in the Baltic Sea. It is closely related to the other West Germanic languages of Frisian, Low German/Low Saxon, German, Dutch, and Afrikaans. The English vocabulary has been significantly influenced by French (a Romance language), Norse (a North Germanic language), and by Latin.

English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England, and was a period in which the language was influenced by French.Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the King James Bible, and the start of the Great Vowel Shift.