English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, originally spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England.[3][4][5] It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated from Anglia, a peninsula on the Baltic Sea (not to be confused with East Anglia in England), to the area of Great Britain later named after them: England. The closest living relatives of English include Scots, followed by the Low Saxon and Frisian languages. While English is genealogically West Germanic, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of French (about 29% of modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), as well as by Old Norse (a North Germanic language).[6][7][8] Speakers of English are called Anglophones.
English
Pronunciation
/ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/[1]
Ethnicity
English people
Anglo-Saxons (historically)
Native speakers
360–400 million (2006)[2]
L2 speakers: 750 million;
as a foreign language: 600–700 million[2]
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
North Sea Germanic
Anglo-Frisian
Anglic
English
Early forms
Old English
Middle English
Early Modern English
Writing system
Latin (English alphabet)
Anglo Saxon runes (historically)
English Braille, Unified English Braille
Signed forms
Manually coded English
(multiple systems)
Official status
Official language in
59 countries
27 non-sovereign entities
Various organisations
United Nations
European Union
Commonwealth of Nations
Council of Europe