Language History:
English is part of the West Germanic family of languages. It originated in medieval England and is now one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. English developed in the Anglo Saxon kingdom of England; its origins are based from Old English which fused many dialects which were closely related. A great many words have their roots in Latin, as this was the Christian Church’s lingua franca. The language was also influenced by the language of Old Norse which arrived with the Vikings during their invasions of England in the ninth and tenth centuries.
During the Norman conquest of eleventh century England, the English language also borrowed words from the Norman language of French which created a close relationship between the languages and created Middle English. It is this form of English which developed from the fifteenth century into the more modern form we have today.
Due to the English colonization of many countries around the world, the modern form of English spread rapidly. It has assimilated words from a number of languages throughout its history which has led to modern English containing a massive vocabulary with irregular and complex spellings.
