Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Europe > United Kingdom > English
English
ISO 639-3: eng
| Population |
58,100,000 in United Kingdom (2005 Crystal). Population total all countries: 328,008,138. |
| Region |
Also in American Samoa, Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Botswana, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Finland, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guyana, Honduras, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia (Peninsular), Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Montserrat, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Pitcairn, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United States, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe. |
| Language map |
Ireland and United Kingdom
|
| Dialects |
Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, West Country, East Anglia, Birmingham (Brummy, Brummie), South Wales, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cornwall, Cumberland, Central Cumberland, Devonshire, East Devonshire, Dorset, Durham, Bolton Lancashire, North Lancashire, Radcliffe Lancashire, Northumberland, Norfolk, Newcastle Northumberland, Tyneside Northumberland, Lowland Scottish, Somerset, Sussex, Westmorland, North Wiltshire, Craven Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, Sheffield Yorkshire, West Yorkshire. Many local English varieties around the world. Lexical similarity: 60% with German, 27% with French, 24% with Russian. |
| Classification |
Indo-European, Germanic, West, English |
| Language use |
National language. |
| Language development |
Fully developed. Bible: 1382–2002. |
| Writing system |
Latin script. |
| Comments |
SVO; prepositions; genitives after noun heads; articles, adjectives, numerals before noun heads; question word initial; word order distinguishes subject, object, indirect objects, given and new information, topic and comment; active and passive; causative; comparative; consonant and vowel clusters; nontonal. Christian. |
Also spoken in:
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
17,400,000 in Australia (2006). |
| Dialects |
Australian Standard English, Aboriginal English, Neo-Nyungar (Noonga, Noongar, Noogar). |
| Language use |
National language. |
| Comments |
Minor regional dialect differences. Neo-Nyungar is the community dialect of the Nyungar people. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
4,000 in Botswana (2006). |
| Alternate names |
Sekgoa |
| Language use |
Official language. International trade, the medium of western influences, language of instruction from fifth grade, written language, official purposes. Taught from the beginning of primary school as a required subject. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
3,500 in British Indian Ocean Territory (2004). |
| Language use |
Official language. |
| Comments |
The indigenous population no longer resides in the islands. Current residents include members of the USA military, a small detachment of British officials, and support staff, mainly of Mauritian and Philippine origin. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
20,000,000 in Canada (2001 census). 820,000 L1 speakers in Quebec (1995 Statistics Canada); plus another 1,500,000 in Quebec whose L1 or L2 is English (1995 Statistics Canada). |
| Dialects |
Newfoundland English. |
| Language use |
Official language. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
20,000 in Cayman Islands (2002). |
| Dialects |
Cayman Islands English. |
| Language use |
National language. |
| Comments |
Colloquial English seemingly borrowed creole features similar to Jamaica and Central America without undergoing creolization (John Holm 1989:479–480). Structurally similar to a creole language. May be similar to Belize Kriol [bzj]. Agriculturalists: cotton. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
8,000 in Dominican Republic (Holm 1989). |
| Region |
Samaná Peninsula, northeastern Dominican Republic. |
| Dialects |
Samaná English. |
| Language use |
Also use Spanish or Haitian [hat]. |
| Comments |
A community of descendants of ex-USA slaves settled in 1824. It is reported that there was a settlement of African slaves here in the early 1500s. There are features of creolization and archaic Black English. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
1,990 in Ethiopia (1994 census). |
| Language use |
Official language. 169,726 L2 users. Language of higher education, many technical fields, and international communication. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
6,000 in Fiji (Crystal 2005). An additional 10,276 or 1.8% of population (1976 census) are part-European, and speak English and Fijian. |
| Language use |
Official language. Also used by many urban Chinese (4,652 in 1976), Rotuman, occasionally by Indians, rarely by Fijians (P. Geraghty 1981). Reportedly a Fijian Pidgin English. Main language of commerce, education, government. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
3,300 in Gibraltar (Johnstone 1993). |
| Dialects |
Yanito. |
| Language use |
Official language. |
| Comments |
Yanito is spoken by most Gibraltarians among themselves. A variety of English with a strong Spanish influence, with over 500 words coming from Genoese (Ligurian) and Hebrew. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
179,000 in India (2006). |
| Language use |
National language. 11,021,610 L2 speakers (1961 census). |
| Comments |
Neither British nor American English but a distinct Indian dialect with its own unique vocabulary and style. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
24,300 in Kenya (2006), increasing. More than 65% of total population of Kenya use English. |
| Language use |
Official language. GIDS 1. Official language in most transactions. All ages. Positive attitude. Mainly L2 speakers in Kenya. |
| Language development |
Taught in primary and secondary schools. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
3,300 in Lebanon (2004). |
| Language use |
Used to some extent since American University of Beirut founding in 1866. Many English language publications. Not spoken on the street or in Lebanese homes. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Language use |
Official language. L2 speakers in Nigeria: 1,000,000 (Voegelin and Voegelin 1977). Used in government and education. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
3,400,000 in Philippines (2000 census). |
| Language use |
Official language. Language of wider communication. 52% of the population said they could speak it as L2 (1980 census). |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Language use |
Official language. Mainly L2 speakers in Rwanda. There may be more users of English than of French. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
1,600 in Saint Lucia (2004). |
| Dialects |
Saint Lucian English. |
| Language use |
Official language. |
| Comments |
An emerging English vernacular on Saint Lucia in a rural area is significantly restructured, heavily French Creole [acf] influenced, English lexicon (1998 P. Garrett). |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
665,000 in Singapore (2000 census). |
| Language use |
Official language. L2 users (literate in English) are 71% of population (2000 census). Ethnic groups which use English: Chinese 154,000, 68%; European and Eurasian 34,000, 15%; Indian 32,000, 14%; Malay 6,000, 3%. Chinese varieties and Tamil [tam] also used at home. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Language use |
Official language. L2 speakers in Tanzania: 1,500,000 (1977 Voegelin and Voegelin). Used by some Asian residents as L1. |
| Language development |
Taught in primary schools. Medium of instruction in secondary schools and universities. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Language use |
Official language. L2 speakers: 1,000,000 in Uganda (Voegelin and Voegelin 1977). Used in primary and secondary schools, law courts. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
110,000 in Zambia (Crystal 2005). |
| Language use |
Official language. Spoken as L1 mostly by Europeans. A small minority of Zambian Africans speak it as a L1. Used as L2. Language of Parliament. Home, education, business. All ages. Positive attitude. |
| Language development |
Taught in primary and secondary schools. |
| |
| Language name |
English |
| Population |
250,000 in Zimbabwe (Crystal 2005). |
| Language use |
Official language. Spoken by most Europeans and an increasing number of Africans. Used in all or most education. |
| |
Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:
Academic Publications
Abu-Mahfouz, Ahmad. 2008. "Translation as a blending of cultures."
Armour, Malcolm S. 1983. "The social stratification of (e) in Midlothian, Texas."
Bailey, Charles-James N. 1985. English phonetic transcription.
Becker, Alton L. 1974. "Conjoining in a tagmemic grammar of English."
Behrens, Dietlinde. 2002. Yakan-English dictionary.
Bidayuh Language Development Project Bukar-Sadung Group, compilers. 2008. Buk ubaang sanda' bigambar = Kamus bergambar = Picture dictionary; Sanda' Bidayŭh Bukar-Sadung, Bahasa Malaysia, English.
Boswell, Freddy. 2006. Review of: A dictionary of European anglicisms: a usage dictionary of anglicisms in sixteen European languages, Manfred Görlach, editor.
Boutin, Michael. 1994. "Morpheme addiction revisited: toward an account of the acquisition of 'present perfect' by non-native speakers of English."
Bruce, Les. 2003. "The language of love in Melanesia: a study of positive emotions."
Buckingham, Andrew. 1983. "The stratification of the sociolinguistic variable (e) in the speech of residents of Midlothian, Texas."
Buckwalter, Jan K. and Gloria Lo Yi-Hsuan. 2002. "Emergent biliteracy in Chinese and English."
Butts, Kathy. 1981. "Teaching English as a foreign language: a brief annotated bibliography."
Casad, Eugene H. 1995. "Seeing it in more than one way."
Chung, Karen Steffen. 2001. Review of: English transcription course, by M. Luisa Garcia Lecumberri and John A. Maidment.
Decker, Ken. 2004. "Moribund English: the case of Gustavia English, St. Barthélmy."
Decker, Ken. 2005. Review of: The vocabulary of world English, by Stephen Gramley, and World Englishes: an introduction, by Gunnel Melchers and Philip Shaw and International English: a guide to the varieties of Standard English, 4th edition, by Peter Trudgill and Jean Hannah.
Dinh Dien. 2005. "Building an annotated English-Vietnamese parallel corpus."
Ðình-Hòa, Nguyén. 1962. Anh-ngũ dê-thât [seventh grade English].
Dooley, Robert A. 2007. "Explorations in discourse topicality."
Feenstra, Jaap. 2003. "Yankee (doodle)."
Feigenbaum, Irwin, editor. 1984. English as a second language: Dimensions and directions.
Franklin, Karl J. 1969. Review of: The writer’s manual: the grammar and mechanics of the English language, by Archibald C. Jordan.
Franklin, Karl J. 1990. "Cross-cultural advertising: Tok Pisin and English in Papua New Guinea."
Franklin, Karl. 2006. Review of: English: meaning and culture, by Anna Wierzbicka.
Fries, Peter H. 1970. Tagmeme sequences in the English noun phrase.
Hale, Austin. 1969. "An introduction to transformational studies of the English comparative."
Hale, Austin. 1970. "Conditions on English comparative clause pairings."
Hansford, Gillian F. 2004. Review of: Igo talk da broken English proper: a North American's guide to Ghanaian English, by Jon P. Kirby.
Healey, Alan. 1968. "English idioms."
Hill, Margaret and Kathie Watters, facilitators. 2006. Kande's story, student book.
Hohulin, E. Lou. 2005. Review of: Prepositions and particles in English: a discourse-functional account, by Elizabeth M. O'Dowd.
Holburn, Fiona. 2000. Review of: Local literacies: reading and writing in one community, by David Barton and Mary Hamilton.
Huebner, Thom. 1988. "Vernacular literacy, English as a language of wider communication, and language shift in American Samoa."
Hwang, Shin Ja J. 1994. "Relative clauses, adverbial clauses, and information flow in discourse."
Hwang, Shin Ja J. 1997. "Purpose clauses in English and Korean."
Jones, Larry B. 1980. Pragmatic aspects of English text structure.
Jones, Larry B. 1983. Pragmatic aspects of English text structure.
Jones, Linda Kay Johnson. 1977. Theme in English expository discourse.
Jones, Linda Kay. 1977. Theme in English expository discourse.
Kluge, Angela. 2007. "RTT Retelling Method: An Alternative Approach to Intelligibility Testing."
Law, Howard W. 1963. The classification of English adverbials in Corpus 05.
Law, Howard W. 1967. "The use of function-set in English adverbial classification."
Lloyd, J. A., compiler. 1992. A Baruya-Tok Pisin-English dictionary.
Longacre, Robert E. 1968. Review of: English grammar: a combined tagmemic and transformational approach, by Nguyễn Ðăng Liêm.
Longacre, Robert E. 1973. "A hierarchical look at the English verb phrase (what it is—what it isn’t)."
Loos, Eugene E., editor, and others. 2003. "Metaphors in English."
Loos, Eugene E., editor, and others. 2003. "Metonymies in English."
Loos, Eugene. 1975. "Three different predicate relationships that underlie some surface structure possessives in English."
Lowe, Ivan. 1969. "An algebraic theory of English pronominal reference (part I)."
Lowe, Ivan. 1974. "An algebraic theory of English pronominal reference (part II): Plurals from singulars."
Marlett, Stephen A. 1975. "Evidence for raising in Koine Greek."
Martin, Howard R. and Kenneth L. Pike. 1974. "Analysis of the vocal performance of a poem: a classification of intonational features."
Mason, Ruth Margaret. 1994. "The development of narrative skills and the evaluative use of modal verbs in the narratives of young non-native speakers of English."
Mason, Ruth. 2009. The use of evaluative devices in the narrative discourses of young second-language learners.
Maxwell, Mike. 2000. Review of: Texas linguistic forum 40: working papers in phonetics and phonology, Amanda R. Doran, Tivoli Majors and Nisha Merchant Goss, editors.
McKaughan, Howard P. 1961. Review of: Foundations for English teaching, by Charles C. Fries and A. C. Fries.
Mortensen, Charles A. 2001. Review of: Cambridge history of the English language, IV, 1776-1997, Suzanne Romaine, editor.
Nagai, Yasuko. 2003. "Designing a vernacular English bridging programme in Papua New Guinea."
Newell, Leonard E. 1966. "Stratificational analysis of an English text."
Nicolle, Stephen M. 1996. Conceptual and procedural encoding in relevance theory: a study with reference to English and Kiswahili.
Nicolle, Steve. 2002. "The grammaticalisation of movement verbs in Digo and English."
Nicolle, Steve. 2007. "The grammaticalization of tense markers: a pragmatic reanalysis."
Nicolle, Steve. 2008. Review of: Real conditionals, by William G. Lycan and Mental spaces in grammar: conditional constructions, by Barbara Dancygier and Eve Sweetser.
Nida, Eugene A. 1960. A synopsis of English syntax.
Parker, Steve. 2003. "The psychological reality of sonority in English."
Parker, Steve. 2008. "Sound level protrusions as physical correlates of sonority."
Peck, Charles W. 1969. An acoustic investigation of the intonation of American English.
Peck, Charles W. 1971. "The placement of accent in English."
Phaiboon, Duangchan. 2006. "Glossary of Aslian languages: the northern Aslian languages of southern Thailand."
Phillips, Audra. Created: 2009. Handbook on adverbials.
Pike, Kenneth L. 1942. Pronunciation. An intensive course in English for Latin-American students, [part] 1.
Pike, Kenneth L. 1945. "Step-by-step procedure for marking limited intonation with its related features of pause, stress and rhythm."
Pike, Kenneth L. 1945. The intonation of American English.
Pike, Kenneth L. 1947. "On the phonemic status of English diphthongs."
Pike, Kenneth L. 1973. "Sociolinguistic evaluation of alternative mathematical models: English pronouns."
Pike, Kenneth L. 1975. "Focus in English clause structure seen via systematic experimental syntax."
Pike, Kenneth L. 1992. "Etic universals and emic particulars seen through the intonation of American English."
Pike, Kenneth L. 1992. The intonation of American English.
Pike, Kenneth L. and Evelyn G. Pike. 1974. "Rules as components of tagmemes in the English verb phrase."
Pike, Kenneth L. and Ivan Lowe. 1969. "Pronominal reference in English conversation and discourse: a group theoretical treatment."
Pike, Kenneth L., editor. 1977. Pilot projects on the reading of English of science and technology.
Pittman, Richard S. 1961. "English comparative and superlative."
Pittman, Richard S. 1961. "Teaching English verb auxiliaries."
Pittman, Richard S. 1962. "A formula for the English verb auxiliaries."
Reiman, Patricia W. 1994. "Subjectless sentences in English."
Rikoto, Bulus Do̱ro̱ and others. 2002. KˀBa̱tksa̱: CˀLela—CˀTuranci—CˀGana = Dictionary: CˀLela—English—Hausa = Kamus: Na Dakarci—Turanci—Hausa.
Roberts, John. 2005. Review of: English words: history and structure, by Robert Stockwell and Donka Minkova.
Savage, Thomas Joel. 1996. An attitude survey of three Alabama speech varieties.
Silzer, Peter J. 2003. "Current issues in English Bible translation."
Sim, Ronald J. 1999. Review of: Functional English grammar: an introduction for second language teachers, by Graham J. Lock.
Summer Institute of Linguistics. 1984. A working thesaurus in Indonesian and English.
Svenonius, Peter. 1992. "Movement of P° in the English verb particle construction."
Thomas, David D. 1969. Review of: English grammar: a combined tagmemic and transformational approach, by Nguyễn Ðăng Liêm.
Tomales, Jesus S., compiler, and others. 1992. Gembabaʼ diksyunari (A short dictionary: Languages - Central Subanen, Cebuano Visayan, Filipino, English).
Townsend, William Cameron, compiler. 1975. A handbook of homophones of General American English.
Trail, Ronald L. 1973. "Semantic relations between whole propositions in English."
Vega, Guillermo, Marilina Bongarrá Vega de and Jonas Noeb, compilers. 2007. Buk bang sinda bigambar = Kamus bergambar = Picture dictionary; Sinda Bidayuh Bau, Bahasa Melayu, English.
Vinton, Virginia C. 1994. The variable (th) in Dallas African American vernacular English.
Walrod, Michael. 2006. "The marker is the message: the influence of discourse markers and particles on textual meaning."
Walter, Kelly. 2005. The Eritrean English curriculum: grades 2-6; assessing academic readiness.
Wang, William S-Y. and John C. Crawford. 1960. "Frequency studies of English consonants."
Watson, Richard L. 2001. Review of: Whales, candlelight, and ’stuff’ like that: general extenders in English discourse, by Maryann Overstreet.
Watt, Milton. 2008. Review of: Le Ton Beau de Marot: in praise of the music of language, by Douglas R. Hofstadter.
Wonderly, William L. 1948. Review of: Pronunciation. An intensive course in English for Latin-American students, [part] 1, by Kenneth L. Pike.
Xie, Chaoquin. 2001. Review of: Possessives in English: an exploration in cognitive grammar, by John R. Taylor.
Yadava, Yogendra P. and Warren W. Glover, editors. 1999. Topics in Nepalese linguistics.
Young, Richard E., Kenneth L. Pike, and Alton L. Becker. 1970. Rhetoric: Discovery and change.
Vernacular Publications
A sickness called AIDS: HIV and AIDS information. 2006.
Beekeeping in Cameroon. 1997.
English alphabet book. 2002.
From mother tongue to English. 1983.
In the village: Book 2, English made easy series. 1985.
Let’s read and write English. 1990.
Magadal kitam ti iba a upos (Let's study another language; A phrase book to learn to read and speak in Palanan-Agta, Tagalog and English). 2006.
Makabasa kitamon 1: U istorya hide a alistu a basaan ti Pahanan-Agta, Tagalog sakay ti Ingles (Easy reading stories 1). 2006.
Mga bitalang pangaldaw-kaldaw = Mga salitang pang-araw-araw = Everyday words and expressions. 2006.
Multilingual Cameroon: Reader in Cameroonian languages / Cameroun multilingue: Lectures en langues camerounaises. 1990.
Pashai akaswala dikshanari - Pashai, Ingrizi, Paxto = An introductory pictorial word book in the Pashai of Afghanistan with Pashto and English. 2005.
Pinarri: Introducing Aboriginal languages in Kimberley schools. 1987.
Reading the clock. 1982.
Saraiki-Urdu-Angrezi bol chal = Conversational Saraiki, Urdu, English. 2005.
Speaking English (An introductory book for primary schools). 1984.
The illustrated book of animals of Africa. 1981.
