 English
is the language spoken by people from England. It is also an international
language that is spoken all over the world in various forms. The English
language belongs to the German branch of the Indo-European group of languages.
It came into use over 1,500 years ago as Anglo-Saxon - the language of the
Angles, Saxons and Jutes (all invaders of Britain). However, numerous languages
from all over the world have also contributed to its rich vocabulary England
and America both profess to speak English, but the language that is spoken in
the USA, is very different from that in England.
This sentence has a completely different meaning
in either country.
"I roll fags"
In England this is a perfectly
innocuous sentence meaning that the speaker hand rolls his own cigarettes.
In the USA it is not something you would say in polite company.
There are an approximate 300
million native speakers and 300 million who use English as a second language and
a further 100 million use it as a foreign language. It is the language of
science, aviation, computing, diplomacy, and tourism. It is listed as the
official or co-official language of over 45 countries and is spoken extensively
in other countries.
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