English Language Facts

• English is one of six official languages of the United Nations, as well as French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese Mandarin.

• English has a huge vocabulary, with over 250000 different words listed in the Oxford English Dictionary.

• English incorporates words from a large number of different languages. Many of these words have French, Old Norse or Dutch origins.

• Many scientific words used in the English language come from Latin or Greek.

English is written in the Latin alphabet (also known as the Roman alphabet).

• English is a West Germanic Language.

• The English language spread with the growth of the British Empire, becoming the dominant language in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

• The growing global influence of the US has further increased the spread of English.

• Today English is probably the most widely spoken language in the world, with many people learning it as a second or foreign language. It is estimated that there could be as many as 1.5 billion total English speakers worldwide.

• With over 800 million native speakers, Chinese Mandarin is the most spoken native language, followed by Spanish and English.

• The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

http://www.funenglishgames.com/funstuff/interestingfacts.html