THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

TEN INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT OUR DEAR ENGLISH LANGUAGE

1.   English is a West Germanic language.

2.   It is spoken as a first language in the United kingdom, the United States, 
      Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and a number of Caribbean
      nations. 

3.   It is also an official language in almost 60 other states such as India, 
      Kenya, Malta, Philippines, South Africa ...

4.   It is an official language in the European Union, the United Nations as well 
      as in many world organizations.

5.   It is the third most common native language in the world, after Mandarin 
      Chinese and Spanish.

6.   English comes from dialects brought to the Eastern coast of Great Britain 
      by Germanic settlers.

7.   English has many words of French origin due to the Norman conquest of 
      Engand in the 11th century.

8.   Latin has also influenced English because it was the lingua franca of the 
      Christian Church and of European intellectual life.

9.   English is the first global dominant language of communication,science, 
      information, technology ,business, seafearing, aviation, entertainment, 
      radio and diplomacy.

10.  A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of 
       fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing and 
       so more than a million people speak English to at least a basic level.