We all know that long before this expansion of English as a global language, there were other minor spreads of the language. But in global terms, the spread of English began in the 16th century, the English language was spoken by few million people living in the southern and eastern parts off the coast European continent. The language became a tool of imperial expansion, and end up by gaining a special place number of countries.
English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now a global lingua franca.
First language:
It is spoken as a first language by the majority populations of several sovereign states, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and a number of Caribbean nations; and it is an official language of almost 60 sovereign states.
After Chinese , which has 1 billion first-language speakers, English is the second most spoken language in the world. For 400 million people in 9 countries .It is widely learned as a second language and is an official language of the European Union.
British colonialism:
As we can imagine, British colonialism was the first step of the expansion of English across the world. But it is also very important the Industrial Revolution in terms of the spread of English. Britain was the leader of the Industrial Revolution .Countries which needed this new industrial knowledge could access it via the medium of English, something which made powerful again the language internationally.
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