English belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Germanic family of Indo-European languages. It was first used by Britain in the Middle Ages and became the most widely used language in the world because of its vast colonies. The Anglo tribe, the ancestor of the British people, is one of the Germanic tribes that later migrated to the island of Great Britain, called England.

Both names come from Anglia in the Baltic Peninsula. This language is closely related to Frisian and Lower Saxon, and its vocabulary is influenced by other Germanic languages, especially Nordic (North Germanic), and is largely written in Latin and French.

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English has developed 1400 years. The earliest form of English is a group of West Germanic dialects brought to Britain by Anglo-Saxon immigrants in the 5th century, which are collectively called Old English. Middle English began at the end of 1 1 and Norman conquered England. 1476, william caxton introduced the printing press to Britain and began to publish the first printed book in London, which expanded the influence of English.

Since17th century, modern English has spread all over the world under the extensive influence of Britain and America. Through all kinds of print and electronic media in these countries, English has become one of the leading languages in the world, and languages also have a dominant position in many regions and professional environments, such as science, navigation and law.

English is the most popular language in terms of distribution area, but the number of native speakers is the third in the world, second only to Chinese and Spanish. It is the most widely studied second language, and it is the official language or one of the official languages of nearly 60 sovereign countries. Compared with native English speakers, more people learn English as a second language.

It is the mother tongue of Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries, and is widely used in the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia. It is one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union and many other world and regional international organizations.