English-speaking world

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English language distribution .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{} Majority native language Official or administrative language, but not majority native language English language distribution.svg
English language distribution
  Majority native language
  Official or administrative language, but not majority native language

The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, [1] [2] making it the largest language by number of speakers, the third largest language by number of native speakers and the most widespread language geographically. The countries in which English is the native language of most people are sometimes termed the Anglosphere. Speakers of English are called Anglophones.

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Early Medieval England was the birthplace of the English language; the modern form of the language has been spread around the world since the 17th century, first by the worldwide influence of England and later the United Kingdom, and then by that of the United States. Through all types of printed and electronic media of these countries, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional fields, such as science, navigation and law. [3]

The United States and India have the most total English speakers, with 306 million and 129 million, [4] respectively. These are followed by Pakistan (104 million), the United Kingdom (68 million), and Nigeria (60 million). [5] As of 2022, there were about 400 million native speakers of English. [6] Including people who speak English as a second language, estimates of the total number of Anglophones vary from 1.5 billion to 2 billion. [2] David Crystal calculated in 2003 that non-native speakers outnumbered native speakers by a ratio of three to one. [7]

Besides the major varieties of English—American, British, Canadian, Australian, Irish, New Zealand English—and their sub-varieties, countries such as South Africa, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from English-based creole languages to Standard English. Other countries and territories, such as Ghana, also use English as their primary official language even though it is not the native language of most of the people. English holds official status in numerous countries within the Commonwealth of Nations. [8]

Majority English-speaking countries

English-speaking peoples monument in London English speaking peoples.jpg
English-speaking peoples monument in London

English is the primary natively spoken language in several countries and territories. Five of the largest of these are sometimes described as the "core Anglosphere"; [9] [10] [11] they are the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

The term "Anglosphere" can sometimes be extended to include other countries and territories where English or an English Creole language is also the primary native language and English is the primary language of government and education, such as Ireland, Gibraltar, and the Commonwealth Caribbean. [12]

While English is also spoken by a majority of people as a second language in a handful of countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, these countries are not considered part of the English-speaking world as the language is still viewed primarily as a foreign tongue and does not serve an important cultural role in society. [13]

Countries or territories where English is an official language

English is an official language ( de facto or de jure ) of the following countries and territories. [14]

Although not official, English is also an important language in some former colonies and protectorates of the British Empire where it is used as an administrative language, namely Brunei, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka.

English as a global language

Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been called a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era, [15] and while it is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language. [7] [16] It is, by international treaty, the official language for aeronautical [17] and maritime [18] communications. English is one of the official languages of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. It is also one of two co-official languages for astronauts (besides the Russian language) serving on board the International Space Station.[ citation needed ]

The English language has a particular significance in the Commonwealth of Nations, which developed from the British Empire. [19] English is the medium of inter-Commonwealth relations. [20] The English language as used in the Commonwealth has sometimes been referred to as Commonwealth English , most often interchangeably with British English. [21]

English is studied most often in the European Union, and the perception of the usefulness of foreign languages among Europeans is 67% in favour of English, ahead of 17% for German and 16% for French (as of 2012). In some of the non–English-speaking EU countries, the following percentages of adults claimed to be able to converse in English in 2012: 90% in the Netherlands; 89% in Malta; 86% in Sweden and Denmark; 73% in Cyprus, Croatia, and Austria; 70% in Finland; and over 50% in Greece, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Germany. In 2012, excluding native speakers, 38% of Europeans consider that they can speak English. [22]

Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world; English is the most commonly used language in the sciences, [15] with Science Citation Index reporting as early as 1997 that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries.

In publishing, English literature predominates considerably, with 28% of all books published in the world [Leclerc 2011][ full citation needed ] and 30% of web content in 2011 (down from 50% in 2000). [16]

The increasing use of the English language globally has had a large impact on many other languages, leading to language shift and language death, [23] and to claims of linguistic imperialism.[ citation needed ] English itself has become more open to language shift as multiple regional varieties feed back into the language as a whole. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English in the Commonwealth of Nations</span>

The use of the English language in current and former Commonwealth countries was largely inherited from British colonisation, with some exceptions. English serves as the medium of inter-Commonwealth relations and the language forms part of the common culture of the Commonwealth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of New Zealand</span>

The demographics of New Zealand encompass the gender, ethnic, religious, geographic, and economic backgrounds of the 5.3 million people living in New Zealand. New Zealanders predominantly live in urban areas on the North Island. The five largest cities are Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, and Tauranga. Few New Zealanders live on New Zealand's smaller islands. Waiheke Island is easily the most populated smaller island with 9,140 residents, while Great Barrier Island, the Chatham and Pitt Islands, and Stewart Island each have populations below 1,000. New Zealand is part of a realm and most people born in the realm's external territories of Tokelau, the Ross Dependency, the Cook Islands and Niue are entitled to New Zealand passports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish language</span> Romance language

Spanish or Castilian (castellano) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a global language with about 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain, and about 600 million when including second language speakers. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries, as well as one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Spanish is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers is Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of the United States</span>

The United States does not have an official language at the federal level, but the most commonly used language is English, which is the de facto national language. In addition, 32 U.S. states out of 50 and all five U.S. territories have declared English as an official language. The majority of the U.S. population (77.5%) speaks only English at home as of 2023. The remainder of the population speaks many other languages at home, most notably Spanish, according to the American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census Bureau; others include indigenous languages originally spoken by Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and native populations in the U.S. unincorporated territories. Other languages were brought in by people from Europe, Africa, Asia, other parts of the Americas, and Oceania, including multiple dialects, creole languages, pidgin languages, and sign languages originating in what is now the United States. Interlingua, an international auxiliary language, was also created in the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglosphere</span> Grouping of English-speaking nations

The Anglosphere, also known as the Anglo-American world, is the Anglo-American sphere of influence, with a core group of nations that today maintain close political, diplomatic and military co-operation. While the nations included in different sources vary, the Anglosphere is usually not considered to include all countries where English is an official language, so it is not synonymous with the sphere of anglophones, though commonly included nations are those that were formerly part of the British Empire and retained the English language and English common law.

Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term Anglosphere. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British descent in Anglo-America, the Anglophone Caribbean, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. It is used in Canada to differentiate between Francophone Canadians, located mainly in Quebec but found across Canada, and Anglophone Canadians, also located across Canada, including in Quebec. It is also used in the United States to distinguish the Hispanic and Latino population from the non-Hispanic white majority.

This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the Germanosphere in Europe, German-speaking minorities are present in many other countries and on all six inhabited continents.

Latin Americans are the citizens of Latin American countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh people</span> Ethnic group and nation native to Wales

The Welsh are an ethnic group and nation native to Wales who share a common ancestry, history and culture. Wales is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. The majority of people living in Wales are British citizens.

In linguistics, a sprachraum is a geographical region where a common first language, with dialect varieties, or group of languages is spoken.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of New Zealand</span>

English is the predominant language and a de facto official language of New Zealand. Almost the entire population speak it either as native speakers or proficiently as a second language. The New Zealand English dialect is most similar to Australian English in pronunciation, with some key differences. The Māori language of the indigenous Māori people was made the first de jure official language in 1987. New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) has been an official language since 2006. Many other languages are used by New Zealand's minority ethnic communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English language</span> West Germanic language

English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, whose speakers, called Anglophones, originated in early medieval England on the island of Great Britain. The namesake of the language is the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to Britain. It is the most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the global influences of the former British Empire and the United States. English is the third-most spoken native language, after Standard Chinese and Spanish; it is also the most widely learned second language in the world, with more second-language speakers than native speakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geographical distribution of Macedonian speakers</span>

The geographical distribution of speakers of Macedonian refers to the total number of native speakers of Macedonian, an East South Slavic language that serves as the official language of North Macedonia. Estimates of the number of native and second language speakers of Macedonian varies; the number of native speakers in the country ranges from 1,344,815 according to the 2002 census in North Macedonia to 1,476,500 per linguistic database Ethnologue in 2016. Estimates of the total number of speakers in the world include 3.5 million people. Macedonian is studied and spoken as a second language by all ethnic minorities in the country.

The British diaspora consists of people of English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, Cornish, Manx and Channel Islands ancestral descent who live outside of the United Kingdom and its Crown Dependencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British people</span> People from the UK and its territories

British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by descent from British nationals. When used in a historical context, "British" or "Britons" can refer to the Ancient Britons, the Celtic-speaking inhabitants of Great Britain during the Iron Age, whose descendants formed the major part of the modern Welsh people, Cornish people, Bretons and considerable proportions of English people. It also refers to citizens of the former British Empire, who settled in the country prior to 1973, and hold neither UK citizenship nor nationality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish people</span> Ethnic group native to Scotland

The Scottish people or Scots are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century. In the following two centuries, Celtic-speaking Cumbrians of Strathclyde and Germanic-speaking Angles of Northumbria became part of Scotland. In the High Middle Ages, during the 12th-century Davidian Revolution, small numbers of Norman nobles migrated to the Lowlands. In the 13th century, the Norse-Gaels of the Western Isles became part of Scotland, followed by the Norse of the Northern Isles in the 15th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages in censuses</span>

Many countries, through the use of censuses, enumerate their populations by languages and by their level of competence in using those languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CANZUK</span> Proposed international alliance

CANZUK is an acronym for a proposed alliance comprising Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom as part of an international organisation or confederation similar in scope to the former European Economic Community. This includes increased trade, foreign policy co-operation, military co-operation and mobility of citizens between the four states, tied together by similar economic systems, social values and political and legal systems, in addition to the majority population of each country speaking English. The idea is lobbied by the advocacy group CANZUK International and supported primarily by conservatives. Other supporters include think tanks such as the Adam Smith Institute, the Henry Jackson Society, Bruges Group and politicians from the four countries.

References

  1. ↑ Crystal, David (2004). The language revolution . John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   978-0-745-63313-8.
  2. 1 2 Crystal, David (2008). "Two thousand million?". English Today. 24: 3–6. doi: 10.1017/S0266078408000023 . S2CID   145597019.
  3. ↑ The Routes of English.
  4. ↑ "How many Indians can you talk to?". www.hindustantimes.com. Retrieved 2024-07-27.
  5. ↑ English Archived 2023-03-09 at the Wayback Machine , Ethnologue , Dallas, Texas: SIL International., 2022.
  6. ↑ "What are the top 200 most spoken languages?". Ethnologue. 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-06-18. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  7. 1 2 Crystal, David (2003). English as a Global Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 69. ISBN   978-0-521-53032-3. Archived from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  8. ↑ Mufwene, Salikoko S. (2016-03-14). "English: the Empire is dead. Long live the Empire". The Conversation. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  9. ↑ Mycock, Andrew; Wellings, Ben (July 2019). "The UK after Brexit: Can and Will the Anglosphere Replace the EU?" (PDF). Cicero Foundation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 June 2020. ...the core Anglosphere states – the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand...
  10. ↑ Vucetic, Srdjan (2011). The Anglosphere: A Genealogy of a Racialized Identity in International Relations . Stanford University Press. ISBN   9780804772242.
  11. ↑ Gregg, Samuel (17 February 2020). "Getting Real About the Anglosphere". Law & Liberty. Archived from the original on Oct 17, 2022. ...from what might be called the "core" Anglosphere nations: Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States;
  12. ↑ Lloyd, John (2000). "The Anglosphere Project". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 13 December 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  13. ↑ "The Anglosphere and its Others: The 'English-speaking Peoples' in a Changing World Order – British Academy". British Academy. Archived from the original on 2017-04-22. Retrieved 2023-05-20.
  14. ↑ "Field Listing - Languages". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency . Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  15. 1 2 David Graddol (1997). "The Future of English?" (PDF). The British Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 February 2007. Retrieved 15 April 2007.
  16. 1 2 Northrup 2013.
  17. ↑ "ICAO Promotes Aviation Safety by Endorsing English Language Testing". International Civil Aviation Organization. 13 October 2011. Archived from the original on 29 June 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  18. ↑ "IMO Standard Marine Communication Phrases". International Maritime Organization. Archived from the original on 27 December 2003.
  19. ↑ "About Us". thecommonwealth.org. The Commonwealth. Archived from the original on 10 September 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  20. ↑ "Joining the Commonwealth". Commonwealth. Archived from the original on 7 March 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
  21. ↑ "Commonwealth English". Oxford English Dictionary . Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  22. ↑ European Commission (June 2012). Special Eurobarometer 386: Europeans and Their Languages (PDF) (Report). Eurobarometer Special Surveys. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-02-07. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  23. ↑ David Crystal (2000) Language Death, Preface; viii, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
  24. ↑ Jambor, Paul Z. (April 2007). "English Language Imperialism: Points of View". Journal of English as an International Language. 2: 103–123. Archived from the original on 2013-09-25. Retrieved 2014-06-16.

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English and Diplomacy
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