English as No 1 language

Intro: A world language is not only characterized by the large number of its speakers (native or second language speakers), but also by its geographical distribution, and its use in international organizations and in diplomatic or trade relations. World languages in this sense are the six official languages of the UN (Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic) as well as Hindi/Urdu, Portuguese, and German. However, English is without a doubt the actual universal language. It means that it is a language spoken internationally and learned by many people as a second language. More than billion people speak English as a first or second language and it is the official language in 53 countries. English is the language of the Internet. Around 75% of the emails sent in the world and 80% of the world wide web is in English.
History of universal language In historic times, Greek and Latin were widely used. These empires stretched over most of Europe and well into Asia and Africa. Especially Latin was by many educated people considered the lingua franca of the Western world. The lingua franca means a language commonly used internationally. The Greek and Roman Empires, dating roughly from 500 BC to 500 AD, are regarded as the cradle of Western civilization in terms of their developing sciences, philosophy and a legal system based on individual rights. A number of international languages have been introduced as prospective world languages, the most successful of them being Esperanto, but none of them can claim the status of a living world language.
History of English: The story of English began in the 5th century when the Angles, Saxons and Jutes came from what is now northern Germany and Denmark. They brought a Germanic language, very different from Modern English. It was more like German, had endings and genders. When the Vikings came from Scandinavia (750 – 1000 AD), they could communicate with the Anglo-Saxons because their languages were similar. So, gradually the endings of Anglo-Saxon language started to disappear to make communication easier between two nations. Modern English has plenty words of Scandinavian origin, e.g. sister, window.
In 1066 William, Duke of Normandy invaded Britain and defeated the last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold, at the Battle of Hastings. French became the national language of England and for the next 300 years, French was the language of government, so many words connected with this area are originally from French, e.g. government, parliament, judge, court, and nation. English was the language of common people. Gradually, it became more and more common. By the end of the 14th century, English regained its dominance, for example because of Geoffrey Chaucer. When Caxton brought the printing press from Belgium in 1476, English could spread very fast. In the 16th century, Renaissance with its revival of education and classical scholarship, brought literally thousands of Latin and Greek words into English, words like expensive (Latin) or chaos (Greek). The late 16th century was also a great period of literature with author such as Shakespeare. An important event was also publication of the Authorised Version of the Bible in English. In the 19th century, English was influenced by many countries that were part of the growing British Empire, e.g. bungalow (India). In the 20th century, a huge amount of new words came into English in the field of science and technology. There is one important word for us – robot created by Josef Čapek and published in Karel Čapek’s play called R.U.R.
English Today Nowadays, English is the second most widely spoken language in the world after Chinese (if Chinese were to be written with the Latin alphabet, it could potentially become a universal language) and it is the most widely understood language. There are already more second-language English speakers than native speakers. English is the mother tongue of the United Kingdom, Ireland, The United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. However, every country has got a different kind of English. The most important and discussable are British and American English. In most European schools, British English is taught as the first foreign language, on the other hand American English is more common because of plenty of American TV films, series and shows. There are differences in grammar, vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation. One of the most notable differences between American and British English is in the spelling of certain words. We can say that Americans tend to make spelling easier, e.g. centre – center, programme – program, colour – color or dialogue – dialog. And some words are absolutely different, e.g. autumn – fall, lift – elevator or underground – subway. English will continue to grow. There will be many more kinds of English in the future: internet chat English, SMS English and so on.