About English

F.A.Q.

1. Which English is better, British English or American English?

That is a very subjective question. An educated person from either country speaks excellent English albeit with differences in vocabulary, pronunciation, and sometimes even grammar. Most people who first learnt British English prefer British English. The same goes for those who first learnt American English.
The Queen's English (a.k.a. RP English) has a great deal of prestige and is considered by many to be more elegant than standard American English, a.k.a. "network English". However, hardly anyone actually speaks the Queen's English. There are estimates that only about 5% of the population of the United Kingdom actually speaks the Queen's English. The rest of the population speak in their own dialect which can vary widely according to region and social class. American English, on the other hand, is very widespread. Over 80% of Americans and Canadians speak more or less the same, with slight variations. Most of the English-language movies and TV shows are in American English, something which accounts for why so many people in Europe now have a more of an American accent rather than an RP English one.

2. What kind of English is spoken in Europe, apart from the United Kingdom and Ireland?

Of course, there are other places in Europe where English has an official status: Malta and Gibraltar. British English, naturally, is the kind of English spoken with a locally flavoured accent. English is definitely the second language in Scandinavia and the Netherlands where it is very widely understood and spoken with great fluency. In these countries, a kind of English known as "Mid-Atlantic" English is used. It is a kind of cross between British and American English, perhaps leaning more towards American thanks to television and Hollywood movies. Elsewhere, English with a definite strong accent is spoken. However, "Euroenglish" is much easier to understand than English spoken by native English-speakers.

3. What kind of English is the most used or taught throughout the world?

In Europe, British English is the norm, despite the unconscious preference of many Europeans for the American accent due to the overwhelming presence of American English in the media. In the Western Hemisphere, for obvious reasons, American English is what people study and learn. In Africa, for equally obvious reasons, British English is the model (except for Liberia) thanks to the British colonial legacy. The most powerful and populous countries in Subsaharan Africa speak English: Nigeria and South Africa. In Asia, it is more complicated. In Japan, American English is mostly taught. In Southeast Asia, American English also dominates in countries where the British never ruled. Elsewhere, where the British did rule, British English is, to no one's surprise, the kind that is taught. In China, American English seems to be the kind that most people learn although, of course, that is not the case in Hong Kong.

4. In the future, how do you see the role of English in Europe, the world, Spain, the Basque Country, indeed, in Zarautz?

English has become THE lingua franca in the European Union, indeed, in Europe. World War II paved the way for English when American and Canadian troops occupied Western Europe in the aftermath of the defeat of Nazi Germany. The ascendancy of English in the Common Market began when the United Kingdom joined it in the 1970's. As more European states joined the Common Market, later known as the European Union, the greater the domination of English. Now, with Eastern European countries joining the European Union, the domination of English is absolute.
Spain was very late to implement effective teaching of English. Spain's entry into the European Union in 1986 set off an explosion of interest in learning English. The Spanish seemingly discovered that they needed English if they were to deal with Europe, indeed, the whole world. French quickly disappeared as the main foreign language being taught. Nevertheless, the Spanish are very much behind the rest of Europe when it comes to speaking English, indeed, any foreign language. This is evidenced by the fact that none of the Spanish Prime Ministers, at least while in office, has ever been able to speak a foreign language with any degree of fluency. Indeed, most Spanish politicians speak no English at all. People like Javier Solana are rare exceptions. Compare that with the Portuguese. All of the main Portuguese politicians are quite fluent in English.
In the Basque Country, Bilbao seems to be the place where English is the most widely spoken. This is undoubtedly due to the strong commercial ties between England and Bilbao. Those people who are bilingual generally have a much easier time in learning English. English has come a long way in the last 25 years. 25 years ago, very few people indeed spoke even a smattering of English since French was the main -- or only -- foreign language taught. Little by little, Basques are coming to realize that they actually need to know English very well if they are to export to the world since the Spanish market now is not big enough. Moreover, the dawning of the internet has made many Basque realize that most of the information in the world is in English. With English, Basques are able to talk to everyone across the world and not just part of the world. English will continue to grow in importance in the Basque Country and perhaps, some day, many of the factories will be functioning in English, not Spanish, on account of the ongoing process of globalization. The Basque Country, at least the Southern Basque Country, on account of its history, is destined to be trilingual in the very near future.
In Zarautz, the people have made great strides in learning English. The tourist industry provided a further boost for English since tourists come from all over the world. Now many of the people in the hotel and restaurant business are able to communicate with tourists in English. Menus in English are widely available. Many of the people in management positions want their children to learn English. Thus, English is increasingly becoming widely known in Zarautz. In 20 years' time, English will be as widely known as Basque or Spanish though, of course, not with the same fluency.

5. What is the best way to learn English?

The best way is to learn the basic grammatical structures and know them thoroughly. That means knowing all the verb tenses, word formation, noun phrases, etc. At the same time, the learner has to know basic vocabulary. The learner also has to listen to English a lot in order to get "an ear" for it. There is no substitute for this.

6. How can I maintain what I already know?

Besides attending classes, the best way is simply watching TV in English, watching DVDs in English (with subtitles in English or Spanish/Basque), reading in English on the internet, taking advantages of talking to tourists, or travelling around Europe and the world.

7. I have studied English for many, many years but I still can't understand what they say in movies and on TV. Why is that? What can I do?

The problem is that you have studied book English but are unfamiliar with English as it is actually spoken. For example,

1a. Why don't you call them?
1b. Why dontcha call 'em?

2a. What did you say?
2b. Whatja say?

3a. I'm going to do something about it.
3b. I'm gonna do sumthin' aboudit (or abou'it)

As you can see, written English is one way, English is it is actually spoken can often be quite different. The trick is learning about native speakers "eat" their words.

8. Why is English spelling so crazy, so illogical, and so irregular?

If you take the history of English into account, it really isn't so crazy. In 87% of the words, English spelling is quite "logical". English is a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Danish, French, Latin, and Greek, plus a host of words from a myriad of languages. The English spelling of Latin and Greek words is primarily based on Latin. Thus, "community" has two "m"s because "communitas" had two "m"s in Latin.
Most of the recent loan words are adopted as they were originally written. Thus, "coup d'état", "Blitzkrieg", "jai alai", "aficionado", "auto da fé", etc. are written as they are in the language that they originally came from.

The problem of English spelling lies with the irregular "13%" of the words which happen to be the most common one. These are mostly Anglo-Saxon words which were originally pronounced one way but, with time, came to be pronounced in a totally different way. For example, the "gh" in words like "light", "tough", "enough", "thought" used to be pronounced as a Spanish "j" or German "ch". This sound gradually disappeared (or changed to "f") in most English dialects but the spelling remained. Nevertheless, English cannot be made phonetic because it would cause chaos for the language since native speakers have such different pronunciations. Thus, we are essentially stuck with English spelling as it is, albeit in two standards: British and American.

9. Why do people in Holland and Scandinavia know so much English while people in this country seem to know so little compared to them?

One advantage that people in Holland and Scandinavia have is that, with the exception of Finnish, their languages are closely related to English. Another advantage is that they don't have to put up with inane dubbing and are thus quite used to watching English. Perhaps another factor is that they know that their languages are small in the world and knowing English is quite advantageous and so they try even harder. Many of the adults already know English quite well a

Contrast this with people in this country. People go to the cinema and see foreign films dubbed in an artificial, wooden Spanish. They watch "the Simpsons" in Spanish, see "Bay Watch" in Spanish, etc. They hardly ever hear any English except, perhaps, in pop songs. Up to now, they have felt little need to learn English since they have felt that Spanish, a major language in the world, is more than enough to get along in the world.

Nevertheless, I am fairly optimistic about the future. Technological advances (DVDs, broad band internet connections), extensive travel, and new ways of thinking are allowing people in this country to listen to English whenever they want. More and more people will turn away from all the silly dubbing and will start to listen to the original version with subtitles. In some 20 years, I am confident that young people in Zarautz will know and speak about as much English as, for example, they do in Finland.

10. Why do native speakers of English know so little grammar?

Arguably, English speakers had a good grasp of grammar several decades ago but since the 1960's, comparatively very little grammar has been taught in schools. This coincided with great changes in society and traditional notions of education were thrown out in favour of "New Math", "New English". As far as English was concerned, emphasis was placed on communicative ability. Added to this trend is the fact that study of Latin, indeed, foreign languages has declined. The upshot of all this is that although notions of grammar are taught, they are not actually learnt since they are so abstract. Thus, today, most English-speakers, even most university-educated speakers, are unable to identity an infinitive, participle, or even a preposition in a sentence. Very few people know what a phrasal verb is and most cannot explain why "*I don't can do it" or "*I will can come tomorrow" are ungrammatical beyond the usual "because-it-sounds-stupid" argument.

The Origin and History of the English Language

Indo-European and Germanic Influences

English is one of the Indo-European family of languages. This broad family includes most of the languages spoken in Europe today and includes several major branches:

• Latin and the modern Romance languages;
• The Germanic languages
• The Slavic languages
• The Indo-Iranian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Persian, Kurdish
• The Baltic languages : Lithuanian and Latvian (but not Estonian);
• The Celtic languages
• Greek
• Armenian
• Albanian (Illyrian)

There are still vestiges of the original Indo-European language, designated proto-Indo-European, which can be seen today, even though it was never written down. The word for father , for example, is vater in German, pater in Latin, and pitr in Sanskrit. These words are all cognates, similar words in different languages that share the same root.

Of these branches of the Indo-European family, two are, for our purposes of studying the development of English, of paramount importance, the Germanic and the Romance (called that because the Romance languages derive from Latin, the language of ancient Rome, not because of any bodice-ripping literary genre). English is in the Germanic group of languages. This group began as a common language in the Elbe river region about 3,000 years ago. Around the second century BC, this Common Germanic language split into three distinct sub-groups:

• East Germanic was spoken by peoples who migrated back to southeastern Europe. All the East Germanic languages died out and the only written East Germanic language that survived to be written was Gothic.
• North Germanic evolved into the modern Scandinavian languages of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese.
• West Germanic is the ancestor of modern German, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, Frisian, and English.

Old English (500-1100 AD)

West Germanic invaders from Jutland in southern Denmark: the Angles (whose name is the source of the words "England" and were named from Engle , their land of origin and their language was called Englisc ,from which the word "English" is derived), Saxons, and Jutes, began invading the island of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. They spoke a mutually intelligible language which is rather similar to modern Frisian--the language of northeastern region of the Netherlands-- if you subtract all the Latin, Greek and French words from English. The language that the West Germanic invaders spoke is now called Old English of which there are four main dialects recognized by linguists:

• Northumbrian in Northumbria, north of the Humber
• Mercian in the Kingdom of Mercia (present-day Midlands)
• West Saxon in the Kingdom of Wessex (the South and West of England)
• Kentish in Kent in Southeast England.

West Saxon in the south and west, Kentish in the Southeast. Northumbrian in the north of England, and Mercian in the Midlands .

Contrary to what many people think, the original inhabitants of Britain were not English at all but were Celts. The incredibly barbarous Germanic invaders eventually wiped out many of the the original, Celtic-speaking inhabitants out of what is now England and many of these Celts fled to Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, and Brittany. These Celtic languages survive today as Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland (a.k.a. Q Celtic) and as Welsh and Breton (a.k.a. P Celtic). Unfortunately Cornish, closely related to Welsh and Breton , died out as the last native Cornish speaker, Dolly Pentreath, died in 1777 in the town of Mousehole, Cornwall. The Vikings also had a big hand in influencing the development of English at this time. Invasions by Scandinavians, beginning around 850, brought many North Germanic words into the language, particularly in the north of England. Some of the Scandinavian words include: sky, egg, cake, skin, leg, window (literally "wind eye"), husband, fellow, skill, anger, flat, odd, ugly, get, give, take, raise, call, die, they, their, them. Most English words beginning with "sk" are Scandinavian in origin. After initial contact and a few generations, Scandinavian words and Old English words were used interchangeably, which is hardly surprising since, in the very end, the language of the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons was closely related. Below are some pairs of words that co-existed in the speech of the Germanic speakers

Although English is a Germanic language, most words in today's English come from Latin and Greek roots, not Old English roots. Indeed, only about 17% of the known Old English words survive in modern English. Nevertheless, the very core of English, its very soul is Old English and are thus the most basic words in English are Germanic in origin. Indeed, nearly half of modern English words such as be , have , and the go back to Old English.

But what about Celtic influence? After all, they were in England before the English. There is remarkably very little influence and Celtic words seem mainly confined to place names such as Devon, Dover, Kent, Trent, Severn, Avon, Thames.

The first passages of English date between 450 and 480 AD. By the 10th Century, the West Saxon dialect of Anglo-Saxon became the language of Britain that came to dominate the island. English was originally written in an alphabet called Runic, derived from the Scandinavian languages but the Latin alphabet was brought over from Ireland by Christian missionaries. This has remained the writing system of English but a couple of letters were borrowed from Norse: " þ " and " ð ". These interesting letters eventually were dropped in favour of "th".Old English lasted more or less until around 1100. The most noteworthy examples of Old English are to be found in the poem best known surviving example is the poem Beowulf as well as passages from the Bible. This last date is rather arbitrary, but most scholars choose it because it is shortly after the most important event in the development of the English language, the Norman Conquest.

The Norman Conquest and Middle English (1100-1500)

England was weakened by various invasions. William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded England in 1066 AD and took advantage of the fact that the Saxons had to beat back an invasion of Norsemen in the north. The Saxons were subdued by the French-speaking Normans at the Battle of Hastings in October, 1066 AD. (The Bayeux Tapestry, details of which form the navigation buttons on this site, is perhaps the most famous graphical depiction of the Norman Conquest.) The kind of French spoken by the Normans was a kind of Old French now known as Anglo-Norman. The Normans were also of Germanic stock ("Norman" comes from "Norseman") but they abandoned their original language, something like Dutch, in favour of French which explains the considerable Germanic influences it had in addition to the basic Latin roots.

Prior to the Norman Conquest, Latin had been only a minor influence on the English language, mainly through vestiges of the Roman occupation and from the conversion of Britain to Christianity in the seventh century (ecclesiastical terms such as priest , vicar , and mass came into the language this way), in addition to such words as street, kitchen, kettle, cup, cheese, wine, angel, bishop, martyr, candle. After the Norman invasion, omance (Anglo-Norman) words flooded the language. This is similar to what happened to Basque in which there were several words borrowed from Latin in Roman times but the trend was accelerated in more recent times due to the enormous pressure exerted by the official Spanish and French languages on the local populace. More pairs of words arose, reflecting the inroads made by Anglo-Norman French:

The influence of the Normans can be illustrated by looking at two words, beef and cow. Beef , commonly eaten by the aristocracy, derives from the Anglo-Norman (boeuf), while the Anglo-Saxon commoners, who tended the cattle, retained the Germanic cow . Many legal terms, such as indict , jury , and verdict have Anglo-Norman roots because the Normans ran the courts. This split, where words commonly used by the aristocracy have Romantic roots and words frequently used by the Anglo-Saxon commoners have Germanic roots, can be seen in many instances.

Sometimes French words replaced Old English words; crime replaced firen and uncle replaced eam . Other times, French and Old English components combined to form a new word, as the French gentle and the Germanic man formed gentleman . Other times, two different words with roughly the same meaning survive into modern English. Thus we have the Germanic doom and the French judgment , or wish and desire .

It is useful to compare various versions of a familiar text (The Lord's Prayer) to see the differences between Old, Middle, and Modern English.

Below is a version from "Old English" (c.1000):
Fæder ure þuþe eart on heofonum
si þin nama gehalgod tobecume
þin rice gewurþe þin willa on eorðan swa swa on heofonum
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dæg
and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele soþlice.

A Middle English version (Wyclif, 1384) is a bit more familiar:
Oure fadir þat art in heuenes halwid be þi name;
þi reume or kyngdom come to be. Be þi wille don in herþe as it is dounin heuene.
yeue to us today oure eche dayes bred.
And foryeue to us oure dettis þat is oure synnys as we foryeuen to oure dettouris þat is to men þat han synned in us.
And lede us not into temptacion but delyuere us from euyl.

Finally, in Early Modern English (King James Version, 1611) the same text is completely intelligible:
Our father which art in heauen, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heauen.
Giue us this day our daily bread.
And forgiue us our debts as we forgiue our debters.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliuer us from euill. Amen.

In 1204 AD, King John lost the province of Normandy to the King of France. This touched off a series a process in which the Norman nobles of England became increasingly alienated from their French cousins. England became the chief concern of the nobility, rather than their estates in France since they were losing title to them. As a result, the English nobles gradually adopted a modified form of English as their native tongue. About 150 years later, the Black Death (1349-50) killed about one third of the English population. The laboring and merchant classes grew in economic and social importance, and, along with them, English increased in importance compared to Anglo-Norman.

This mixture of the two languages came to be known as Middle English. The most famous example of Middle English is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales . Unlike Old English, Middle English can be read, albeit with difficulty, by modern English-speaking people.

By 1362, the linguistic division between the nobility and the commoners was largely over. In that year, the Statute of Pleading was adopted, which made English the language of the courts and it began to be used in Parliament.

The Middle English period came to a close around 1500 AD with the rise of Modern English.

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

The next wave of innovation in English came with the Renaissance. The revival of classical scholarship brought many classical Latin and Greek words into the Language. These borrowings were deliberate and many bemoaned the adoption of these "inkhorn" terms, but many survive to this day. Shakespeare's character Holofernes in Loves Labor Lost is a satire of an overenthusiastic schoolmaster who is too fond of Latinisms.

Many students having difficulty understanding Shakespeare would be surprised to learn that he wrote in modern English. But, as can be seen in the earlier example of the Lord's Prayer, Elizabethan English has much more in common with our language today than it does with the language of Chaucer. Many familiar words and phrases were coined or first recorded by Shakespeare, some 2,000 words and countless catch-phrases are his. Newcomers to Shakespeare are often shocked at the number of cliches contained in his plays, until they realize that he coined them and they became cliches afterwards. "One fell swoop," "vanish into thin air," and "flesh and blood" are all Shakespeare's. Words he bequeathed to the language include "critical," "leapfrog," "majestic," "dwindle," and "pedant."

Two other major factors influenced the language and served to separate Middle and Modern English. The first was the Great Vowel Shift. This was a change in pronunciation that began around 1400. While modern English speakers can read Chaucer with some difficulty, Chaucer's pronunciation would have been completely unintelligible to the modern ear. Shakespeare, on the other hand, would be accented, but understandable. Long vowel sounds began to be made higher in the mouth and the letter "e" at the end of words became silent. Chaucer's Lyf (pronounced "liif") became the modern life . In Middle English name was pronounced "naam-a," five was pronounced "fiif," and down was pronounced "duun." In linguistic terms, the shift was rather sudden, the major changes occurring within a century. The shift is still not over, however, vowel sounds are still shortening although the change has become considerably more gradual.

The last major factor in the development of Modern English, indeed of all modern languages, was the advent of the printing press. William Caxton brought the printing press to England in 1476. Books became cheaper and as a result, literacy became more common. Publishing for the masses became a profitable enterprise, and works in English, as opposed to Latin, became more common. Finally, the printing press brought standardization to English. The dialect of London, where most publishing houses were located, became the standard. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the first English dictionary was published in 1604.

Late-Modern English (1800-Present)

The principal distinction between early- and late-modern English is vocabulary. Pronunciation, grammar, and spelling are largely the same, but Late-Modern English has many more words. These words are the result of two historical factors. The first is the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the technological society. This necessitated new words for things and ideas that had not previously existed. The second was the British Empire. At its height, Britain ruled one quarter of the earth's surface, and English adopted many foreign words and made them its own.

The industrial and scientific revolutions created a need for neologisms to describe the new creations and discoveries. For this, English relied heavily on Latin and Greek. Words like oxygen , protein , nuclear , and vaccine did not exist in the classical languages, but they were created from Latin and Greek roots. Such neologisms were not exclusively created from classical roots though, English roots were used for such terms as horsepower , airplane , and typewriter .

This burst of neologisms continues today, perhaps most visible in the field of electronics and computers. Byte , cyber- , bios, hard-drive , and blog are good examples.

Also, the rise of the British Empire and the growth of global trade served not only to introduce English to the world, but to introduce words into English. Hindi, and the other languages of the Indian subcontinent, provided many words, such as pundit, shampoo, pajamas , and juggernaut . Virtually every language on Earth has contributed to the development of English, from Finnish ( sauna ), Basque (jai alai), Spanish (lasso, canyon), Hindi (khaki), Portuguese (mandarin) and Japanese ( tycoon ) to the vast contributions of French and Latin.

The British Empire was a maritime empire, and the influence of nautical terms on the English language has been great. Words and phrases like three sheets to the wind and scuttlebutt have their origins onboard ships.

Finally, the 20th century saw two world wars, and the military influence on the language during the latter half of this century has been great. Before the Great War, military service for English-speaking persons was rare; both Britain and the United States maintained small, volunteer militaries. Military slang existed, but with the exception of nautical terms, rarely influenced standard English. During the mid-20th century, however, virtually all British and American men served in the military. Military slang entered the language like never before. Blockbuster, nose dive, camouflage, radar, roadblock, spearhead , and landing strip are all military terms that made their way into standard English. Terms from pop culture, the internet, computer science are all making inroads into the everyday language: interface, chip, etc-

A Chronology of the English Language

The Importance of English in Europe and the World

What is behind the need or urge to learn English in the world? Let us consider this basic question.

English is not the most widely spoken language in the world in terms of the number of native speakers--there are many more Chinese speakers than native English speakers--but Chinese is spoken little outside of China and Chinese communities, so English is the most widespread language in the world. It is difficult to estimate exactly how many English speakers there are, but according to one estimate there are more than 350,000,000 native English speakers and more than 400,000,000 speakers of English as a second language (a language used in everyday life, even though it is not the native language) or foreign language (a language studied but not used much in everyday life).

However, even these numbers do not really indicate how important English is as a world language because less than fifteen percent of the world population uses English. The importance of English is not just in how many people actually speak it but what it is used for and who uses it. English is the major language of news and information in the world. It is the language of business and government even in some countries where it is a minority language (e.g. in Namibia, only %1 of the population speaks English as a native language but it is the sole official language). It is the language of maritime communication and international air traffic control, and it is used even for internal air traffic control in countries where it is not a native language. American popular culture--primarily movies and music-- carries the English language throughout the world.

It is listed as the official or co-official language of over 45 countries and territories and is spoken extensively in other countries where it has no official status (e.g. the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Israel, etc.). English plays a part in the cultural, political or economic life of the following countries. Majority English speaking populations are shown in bold.

• Antigua
• Australia
• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Belize
• Bermuda
• Botswana
• Brunei (with Malay)
• Cameroon (with French though French is more prevalent)
• Canada (with French)
• Dominica
• Fiji
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Gibraltar
• Grenada
• Guyana
• India (along with 14 Indian languages, notably Hindi, Bengali, and Tamil)
• Ireland (with Irish Gaelic)
• Jamaica
• Kenya (with Swahili)
• Kiribati
• Lesotho (with Sotho)
• Liberia
• Malawi (with Chewa)
• Malta (with Maltese)
• Mauritius
• Namibia (with Afrikaans)
• Nauru (with Nauruan)
• New Zealand
• Nigeria
• Pakistan (with Urdu)
• Papua New Guinea
• Philippines (with Tagalog)
• Puerto Rico (with Spanish)
• St Christopher and Nevis
• St Lucia
• St Vincent
• Senegal (with French)
• Seychelles (with French)
• Sierra Leone
• Singapore (with Malay, Mandarin and Tamil)
• South Africa (with Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, and 7 others)
• Surinam (with Dutch)
• Swaziland (with Swazi)
• Tanzania (with Swahili)
• Tonga (with Tongan)
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Tuvalu
• Uganda
• United Kingdom and its dependecies
• United States of America and its dependencies
• Vanatu (with French)
• Western Samoa (with Samoan)
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

This compares to 27 for French, 20 for Spanish, 17 for Arabic, and 8 for Portuguese. This domination is unique in history. Speakers of languages like French, Spanish and Arabic may disagree, but English is on its way to becoming THE world's unofficial international language. Mandarin (Chinese) may be spoken by more people, but English is now the most widespread of the world's languages and is steamrolling its way ahead still further. Indeed, it is said that in 20 years, there will be more speakers of English in China alone, albeit non-native ones, than there will be native speakers of English. While people seem to focus on China's rapid rise, many seem not to notice that India is also on its way to becoming one of the key economic and military powers in the world and English is the language that the upper and middle classes use in government, business, and research, thereby further enhancing the rise and rise of English.

Half of all business deals in the world are conducted in English. Two thirds of all scientific papers are written in English. Over 70% of all post / mail is written and addressed in English. Most international tourism, aviation and diplomacy is conducted in English .

English as a First, Second or Third Language

In some countries, English is the sole or dominant language. It has that role in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. All of these countries are former British colonies. In other countries, English is widely used, particularly among people who have no other language in common, even though it is not the dominant language of the country. For example, English is widely used in Hong Kong, Singapore, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Malaysia. In such countries, it is often used as a means of communication between people who have different native languages and has replaced former lingua francas (e.g. Hausa in Nigeria, Spanish in the Philippines).

Uses of English

English for News and Information

English is commonly used as a medium for the communication of information and news. Three quarters of all telex messages and telegrams are sent in English. Eighty percent of computer data are processed and stored in English. Much satellite communication is carried in English. Five thousand newspapers, more than half of the newspapers published in the world, are published in English. Even in many countries where English is a minority language, there is at least one newspaper in English. In India alone, there are three thousand magazines published in English. In many countries, television news is broadcast in English. Because of the power of television, demonstrators in every country use signs printed in English for the benefit of the international press.

English for Business, Diplomacy, and the Professions

English is a major language of international business, diplomacy, and science and the professions. It is the language that an Iranian businessman and a Japanese businessman are likely to use when they would communicate. Important commodities such as silver, tin, and hard currency are traded in English. English is also an official language, or the official language, of many international organizations, including the United Nations and many professional organizations. It is frequently the language of international conferences, and it is the language of international athletics. Throughout the world, many professional papers are published in English. Even papers that are published in other languages often have abstracts in English.

English for Entertainment

Popular culture

Popular culture has also played an important part in spreading English. American and British popular music are heard all over the world. American movies are seen in almost every country. Books in English are available even in countries where few people actually use English. One reason that students give for learning English is to understand these songs, movies and books.

Travel

English is also very important for international travel. Much of the information countries disseminate about themselves outside of their borders is in English. English is spoken in large hotels and tourist attractions, at airports, and in shops that tourists frequent. There are newspapers printed in English, and TV news is available in English. Tours are almost always available in English. Even in countries where few people speak English on the street, people who work with tourists generally speak English. In some countries even drivers of buses or streetcars and sellers at newsstands speak English well.

Other Uses of English

In many former British colonies, English is still used in government and as a medium of communication among people who do not have another language in common. In some cases, it is a neutral language that is used to avoid giving any one indigenous language too much prestige. English is often used in India, because it is neutral. It is the language of government. People who speak English have a certain status in society. It is used for books, music and dance. In Singapore, English is a second language, but it is necessary for daily life. Many companies there use English. In addition, sixteen countries in Africa have retained English as the language of government. Now standard English is taught in schools in those countries, because it is necessary for careers.

English is also studied as a foreign language in countries where it is not generally used as a medium of communication. In China, English language lessons are popular TV programs. Two hundred fifty million Chinese--more than the population of the US--are learning English on TV. English is usually the first or most commonly taught foreign language in many countries, and people understand it a little at least. Some projections show that, with current trends, English will be spoken, in some form (as a second, third, or fourth language) by half the world's population in 20 years, and spoken by the great majority of university graduates to at least some extent.

The Situation of English in the Basque Country

Only a quarter of a century ago, relatively few people in the Basque Country actually knew any English at all. If they knew any foreign language, it was French in the Southern Basque Country and Spanish in the Northern Basque Country. After the death of Generalissimo Franco, among the many huge changes that were taking place, people began to realize that it was English, not French or Spanish, that was the leading international language in communications, commerce, science, and research. In the Southern Basque Country, there was a rather sudden switchover from French to English in the years 1978-1985 which proved rather traumatic for many, especially for the teachers of French. Many of them quickly took up English and started teaching French in order to retain their jobs.

Also during this time, private schools for learning English mushroomed and boomed.

Thousands of Basques visit foreign countries each year, and more than one third visit English-speaking countries. Many these people go abroad as part of a tour, and they do not speak English during the visit. They just see scenery, buildings, gardens, etc., eat in restaurants and stay at hotels. There is no contact with the people of the country. If they could speak English, at least they could talk with people in the countries where they visit. They could visit places on their own or take local tours. They can choose restaurants where they wanted to eat and shops where they wanted to buy things. They could get information though tourist information literature, newspapers, magazines, and TV programs.

Nowadays many college graduates who work for large corporations will have opportunities to visit foreign countries on business or work in foreign countries. English is likely to be essential wherever they go, even if they are working in countries where English is not the dominant language. Local workers with whom they work may speak English but often no Spanish or French.

The Basque Country has achieved economic prosperity and has a good reputation for producing high quality manufactured goods. Many people throughout the world are interested in Basque business, technology, and culture. However, there are many people in the world who do not understand Spanish, French, or Basque. There are not many books, magazines, or computer sources to convey information on the reality of the Basque Country. More and more information needs to be transmitted in English so that many people in the world will be able to actually know what is going on in the Basque Country and learn about the country's culture and situation. We need more people who could convey information about the Basque Country to the outside world.

More and more Basques are attending international conferences and need to present papers and to participate in discussions. Most international conferences are held in English, increasingly, only in English. Many researchers in universities and companies attend international conferences to present the results of their research. Most presentations are in English. Their papers are also published in international journals, which are also in English.

A great deal of information is available on the Internet. Most information on the Internet is in English, so if Basque people want to take advantage of the many resources on the Internet, they need to be able to read English.

Kinds of English

American English

Also significant beginning around 1600 AD was the English colonization of North America and the subsequent creation of a distinct American dialect. Some pronunciations and usages "froze" when they reached the American shore. In certain respects, American English is closer to the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some "Americanisms" that the British decry are actually originally British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost at home (e.g., fall as a synonym for autumn, trash for rubbish, frame-up which was reintroduced to Britain through Hollywood gangster movies, and loan as a verb instead of lend).

The American dialect also served as the route of introduction for many native American words into the English language. Most often, these were place names like Mississippi, Roanoke , and Iowa . Indian-sounding names like Idaho were sometimes created that had no native-American roots. But, names for other things besides places were also common. Raccoon, tomato, canoe, barbecue, savanna, and hickory have native American roots, although in many cases the original Indian words were mangled almost beyond recognition.

Spanish has has some influence on American English vocabulary. Armadillo, mustang, canyon, ranch, stampede, and vigilante are all examples of Spanish words that made their way into English through the settlement of the American West.

To a lesser extent French, mainly via Louisiana, and West African, through the importation of slaves, words have influenced American English. Armoire, bayou, and jambalaya came into the language via New Orleans. Goober, gumbo, and tote are West African borrowings first used in America by slaves.