English

English language

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English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in Anglo-Saxon England in the early Middle Ages. It is now the most widely used language in the world.[4]

It is spoken in many countries around the world. It is the first language of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand and a number of Caribbean nations. There are about 375 million native speakers (people with first language as English),[5] which makes English the second most spoken language in the world. About 220 million more people speak it as a second language and there are as many as a billion people who are learning it.

English has changed, and has been changed by many different languages.[6] Because nearly 60% of the vocabulary comes from Latin, English is sometimes called the most Latin of the Germanic languages.[7]