For hundreds of years English was spoken only by the inhabitants of Englad.

After the discovery of the New Wordl, however, English gradually extented to North America, to Australia and New eland, to Africa and parts ofAsia. !oday around "## million people speak English as a firts language, and nearly $%# million people speak English as a second or auxiliary language. Where did this language begin& 'cholars hve concluded that there was an early language, called (ndo)European, which is the ancestor of present)day Englisg and most of the languages in Europe. We do not know much about the people who spoke this language, but it seems very possible that they may have lived in east central Europe. !hey migrated, some went east and settled in (ran and (ndia. 'ome went to the west coast of Europe. *eltic and +atin ,ne tribe of (ndo) Europeans, the *elts, were the earliest known inhabitans of the island that is now called -ritan. !hese ancestors of the modern 'cots, Welsh, and (rish controlled the island without interruption until the invasion of the .omans, who were also of (ndo)European descent. When the .omans became the masters of -ritain A./. 0", they buiit towns and roads, some of wich are still being used. /uring the .oman occupation, +atin was the official language throughout most of the island. 1ermanic About the beginning of the fifth century the .omans lost control of the island of -ritain, which soom became the trget of a new invasion. !henext invaders were the Angles, the 'axons, and 2utes. All of them spoke closely related dialects of 1ermanic. !he *elts were forced to move to the north and west to what is now 'cotland, Wales, and (reland. (n the part of -ritain that is now England, the dialects that these 1ermanic tribes spoke, together called Anglo)'axon or ,ld English, became the common speech. 'candinavian !he next invasion of -ritain came from and (ndo)European people who lived in northern Europe. !he /anes or 3ickings as they were sometimes called, came again, and this time they decide to stay. After some fighting, in A./. 454, a treaty was written, giving the /anes a 'ection of England called the /anelaw, and they became Englishmen too. 1radually words from their anguage were added to the English language. Norman French Altthough English was well developed by the eleventh century, for the next "## years it was not the official language in England. !he /anes had spread all along the coasts of Europe, as well as to England. 'ome of them had settled in part of France, and by the eleventh century they were called Normans and had adopted French as their own language. (n $#66 the Normans con7uered England, so another people, also speaking an (ndo)European language, had come to settle. For three hundred years the official languages of England used in bussines, the church and the government were French and +atin. 3ery little was done in English, except talking. -ecause the ordinary people of England continued speaking English for three centuries, their language survived. After a time, the Normans mixed with the Anglo) 'axons and the /anes, and eventually they were all Englishmen. 8eanwhile English replaced French as the common written language. 9owever, English kept and borrowed more words from French than from any other language. (t continued changing. *onstantly cahanging its vocabulary and its

constructions as the re7uirements of our complex modern life demand, constantly borrowing and adapting, Englis has kept its energy, flexibility, and adaptability as it continues to expand around the world.