As a common language, English is one of the working languages of the United Nations and the de facto language of international communication. English belongs to the west Germanic branch of the Germanic family of Indo-European languages, which evolved from the languages spoken by the Germanic tribes of Anglo-Saxon and Jute tribes who immigrated to the island of Great Britain in ancient times, and spread to all parts of the world through active British colonization.

Due to the contact with many national languages in history, its vocabulary changed from monism to pluralism. Grammar has changed from "more twists and turns" to "less twists and turns", and pronunciation has changed regularly. According to the number of native speakers, English is the most widely used language in the world.

English literature

Early works of Old English literature were written in Northumbria. Due to the invasion of Sta Danawi, the cultural center of Britain moved from Northumbria to Greece, and in the ninth century, it moved to Wessex, the capital of the western secret zone.

On the one hand, King Alfred the Great of West Saxony resisted Danish aggression by force, on the other hand, he strongly advocated literature and education, personally organized and participated in the translation of foreign literary works and academic works, and copied and revised his own literature.

Through the efforts of western Saxon scribes, old English poems have been preserved. During the period of Alfred the Great, the prose works of Old English developed greatly, which were mainly written in West Saxon dialect.

The vocabulary of old English is different from that of modern English, and most of them are inherent in West Germanic languages. There are also some words borrowed from other languages in old English vocabulary. It can be seen from these words that the influence of early Roman merchants was great. With the introduction of Christianity into Britain, more Latin words entered the old English vocabulary.

In the Celtic language that originally lived in Britain, few numbers entered the English vocabulary, and some Celtic words were kept in British place names.