Asusu Bekee

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English Template:Infobox Language/pronunciation
Spoken in: Listed in the article
Total speakers: First language: 309[1] – 380 million[2]
Second language: 199[3] – 600 million
Template:Infobox Language/rank
Language family: Indo-European
 Germanic
  West Germanic
   Anglo–Frisian
    Anglic
     EnglishTemplate:Infobox Language/scriptTemplate:Infobox Language/official
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng 
World countries, states, and provinces where English is a primary language are dark blue; countries, states and provinces where it is an official but not a primary language are light blue.
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

English is a West Germanic language originating in England, and the first language for most people in Australia, Canada, the Commonwealth Caribbean, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States (also commonly known as the Anglosphere). It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language throughout the world, especially in Commonwealth countries such as India, Pakistan and South Africa, and in many international organisations.

Modern English is sometimes described as the global lingua franca.[7][8] English is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment and diplomacy.[2] The influence of the British Empire is the primary reason for the initial spread of the language far beyond the British Isles.[9] Following World War II, the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States has significantly accelerated the spread of the language.

Because a working knowledge of English is required in certain fields, professions, and occupations, English is studied and spoken by up to a billion people around the world, to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). English is one of six official working languages of the United Nations.

Contents

Asusu Bekee

Asusu Bekee si n'akuku West Germany nke no na England, obu kwa asusu mbu ndi Austraila, Canada, Comonwealth Carribean, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kindom, na United states (ejkwa Anglophere mara ha). Ana asu ya nk'ukwu dika asusu nke abua, ya na so asusu an'asu na uwa nile, na ebe osi karisia n'ime obodo no na ogbako ndi Comonwealth dika India, Pakistan na South Africa, na n'ime ogbako amara aha ya n'uwa n'ile.

Mgbe ufodi, a na ahu asusu bekee ohuru dika asusu jikotara uwa n'ile. A'nakacha asu bekee karisia asusu ndi ozo n'uwa n'ile n'ime izi ozi, nka n'uzu, azuma ahia, ugbo elu, egwuregwu n'ihe gbasara mba ndi ozo. Mmeko ochichi Britian bu ibe mbu mere asusu a ji kpasa gabiga gburu-gburu Briten. Nke n'eso ya bu Agha Abuo uwa n'ile luru, Otuto azumahia na mmeko omenala nke ndi United States nyere aka ime k'asusu a ga mie kwa.

Maka na asusu Bekee di mkpa n'ufodi oru, iheji mara, ya na aka oru, madu ruru ijeri n'amu n'asukwa bekee n'uwa n'ile na ebe odika siri ala. (see Omumu na Nkuzi Bekee). Bekee bu otu n'ime asusu isi ndi United Nations ji aru oru.

Akuko Osuso

Main article: History of the English language

Bekee bu Anglo-Frisian language. Germanic-ndi site na ngbago Germani(Saxons na Angles) na Jutland (Jutes) ti bata ebe a na masi keta bu Eastern ni be oge fifth century AD. Okwu etu Old English language site we bia gbata asusu ndi England ka no na mbara, ma ndi nolu ebe anwa da kagbu mo ndi site na obodo nolu n'ilo do lu fa bu ajuju ka di na okwu etu asusu bekee site welu bia na mba bekee. Na oge fe si mbe bekee biabido na mba, ndi bilu ebe anwa bado ba na asusu bekee, ha we jite ya wenite ohaneze ofu na omume ala ha di iche na ndi biali na obodo ha.

etere obodo nnanna ha, omume obodo ha bido na obodo bulu si nke di iche ha na kpo "old english" yilu asusu an ome nala ebe bu kita north-west Germany na Netherlands (i.e., Frisia).


Na akuko mgbe ochie nke asusu bekee edere ede, onweghi mgbanwe na onyiribe yadika esi do ya nke nodebere [Proto-Indo-European]], na agasokwa na n'ukwu [Odida anyanwu Saxon]] ka ha si ede ihe odide, N'ebe asumasu bekee ochie n'amuba analitic dika osi di na mbu, n'etufu otutu uda ume asusu ndi n'agbogwoju anya,ma na adebere karisia na preposition ya na fixed word-order tupu aghota ihe o'na akowa. Nke a ziputara onwe ya n'oge etiti gbo Bekee, oge ana ede ihe agumagu dika esi suo ya n'onu, ya na n'olu okwu onye suru ya, mgbe Bekee Ochie edere ede netufugo ogo enyere ya dika asusu ndi amara aha ha. Aturu ero ma nabata kwa na mgbe asusu a n'etoputa, asusu ndi Celtic nyere ya aka .[10][11] Later, it was influenced by the related North Germanic language Old Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the north and the east coast down to London, the area known as the Danelaw.

Mmeri n'agha Norman Conquest of England Norman meriri ndi England n'aro 1066 nyere aka na mgbawe n'otuto asusu a. N'he dika aro nari ato gasiri, ndi Norman ji Anglo-Norman, nke dikwa ka French Ochie, dika asus ulo ikpe, iwu na usoro ochichi ya. Onu ogugu asusu ndi Norman no n'ime Bekee Ochie, karisia n'ru ndi oka iwu na usoro ochichi. Emecha, agbasiri otutu okwu nagwaghi agwa site Latin ya na Greek, rapu kwa okwu ndi dara uda ha we nogide rue na oge ugbua. Mmeko Norman mere ka enwe ihe ana akpo Etiti asus Bekee.

Na oge 15th centuri, ndi Great Vowel Shift gbanwere Etiti asus Bekee, mgbasa n'ime ka bekee buru ka ndi london n'asu ya n'ulo ochichi na n'usoro ochichi, ya na n'uzo esi ebi akwukwo. Enwere ike ichoputa Early Modern English na gburu gburu oge William Shakespeare.

Classification and related languages

The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch, which is itself a branch of the Indo-European family of languages.

The question as to which is the nearest living relative of English is a matter of discussion. Apart from such English-lexified creole languages such as Tok Pisin, Scots (spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland) is the Germanic variety most closely associated with English. Like English, Scots ultimately descends from Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon. The closest relative to English after Scots is Frisian, which is spoken in the Northern Netherlands and Northwest Germany. Other less closely related living West Germanic languages include German, Low Saxon, Dutch, and Afrikaans. The North Germanic languages of Scandinavia are less closely related to English than the West Germanic languages.

Many French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, roughly sixty percent of the English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning, in so-called "faux amis", or false friends.

Geographical distribution

Template:Seealso Over 380 million people speak English as their first language. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.[4][5] However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese Languages, depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects."[6][12] Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined.[13][14] There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.[15]

The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million),[16] United Kingdom (58 million),[17] Canada (17.7 million),[18] Australia (15 million),[19] Ireland (3.8 million),[17] South Africa (3.7 million),[20] and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million).[21] Countries such as Jamaica, Nigeria and Singapore also have millions of native speakers of dialect continuums ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world.[22] Following India is the People's Republic of China.[23]

Distribution of native English speakers by country (Crystal 1997)
Country Native speakers
1 USA 215,423,557[16]
2 UK 58,200,000[17]
3 Canada 17,694,830[18]
4 Australia 15,013,965[19]
5 Ireland 4,200,000+ (Approx)[17]
6 South Africa 3,673,203[20]
7 New Zealand 3,500,000+ (Approx)[21]
8 Singapore 665,087[24]

English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey, Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man, Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom (various forms of British English), the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States (various forms of American English).

In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, Hong Kong, India, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa ("South African English"). English is also an important language in several former colonies or current dependent territories of the United Kingdom and the United States, such as in Hong Kong and Mauritius.

English is not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom.[25][26] Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments.[27]

English as a global language

See also: English on the Internet and global language

Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "global language", the lingua franca of the modern era.[8] While English is not an official language in many countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications, as well as one of the official languages of the European Union, the United Nations, and most international athletic organisations, including the International Olympic Committee.

English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%).[28] It is also the most studied in China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.[citation needed]

Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences.[8] In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries.

Dialects and regional varieties

Main article: List of dialects of the English language

The expansion of the British Empire and—since WWII—the primacy of the United States have spread English throughout the globe.[8] Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins.

The major varieties of English include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney slang within British English; Newfoundland English, and the English spoken by Anglo-Québecers within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's Académie française; and, although no variety is clearly considered the only standard, there are a number of accents considered to be more prestigious, such as Received Pronunciation in Britain.

Scots developed — largely independently — from the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English.

Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English speakers, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language.

Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in a great many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have formed using an English base, such as Jamaican Creole, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. Franglais, for example, is used to describe French with a very high English word content; it is found on the Channel Islands. Another variant, spoken in the border bilingual regions of Québec in Canada, is called FrEnglish.

Constructed varieties of English

  • Basic English is simplified for easy international use. It is used by manufacturers and other international businesses to write manuals and communicate. Some English schools in Asia teach it as an practical subset of English for use by beginners.
  • Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words.
  • English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language.
  • Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel.
  • English as a lingua franca for Europe and Euro-English are concepts of standardising English for use as a second language in continental Europe.
  • Manually Coded English — a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English.
  • E-Prime excludes forms of the verb "to be."

Euro-English (also EuroEnglish or Euro-English) terms are English translations of European concepts that are not native to English-speaking countries. Due to the United Kingdom's (and even the Republic of Ireland's) involvement in the European Union, the usage focuses on non-British concepts. Examples are the concept of spatial planning[citation needed], the description of something being “degressive”, and the prefix "Euro-". This kind of Euro-English was parodied when English was "made" one of the constituent languages of Europanto.

It also refers to dialects of English spoken by Europeans for whom English is not their first language, especially since English is frequently used by two Europeans to communicate even when neither of them know English as the first language.[citation needed]

Phonology

Main article: English phonology

Vowels

IPA Description word
monophthongs
i/iː Close front unrounded vowel bTemplate:Bold dark redd
ɪ Near-close near-front unrounded vowel bTemplate:Bold dark redd
ɛ Open-mid front unrounded vowel bTemplate:Bold dark redd
æ Near-open front unrounded vowel bTemplate:Bold dark redd
ɒ Open back rounded vowel bTemplate:Bold dark redd Template:Footnote
ɔ Open-mid back rounded vowel pTemplate:Bold dark reded Template:Footnote
ɑ/ɑː Open back unrounded vowel brTemplate:Bold dark red
ʊ Near-close near-back rounded vowel gTemplate:Bold dark redd
u/uː Close back rounded vowel bTemplate:Bold dark reded
ʌ/ɐ Open-mid back unrounded vowel, Near-open central vowel bTemplate:Bold dark redd
ɝ/ɜː Open-mid central unrounded vowel bTemplate:Bold dark redd Template:Footnote
ə Schwa RosTemplate:Bold dark red's Template:Footnote
ɨ Close central unrounded vowel rosTemplate:Bold dark reds Template:Footnote
diphthongs
e(ɪ)/eɪ Close-mid front unrounded vowel
Close front unrounded vowel		 bTemplate:Bold dark reded Template:Footnote
o(ʊ)/əʊ Close-mid back rounded vowel
Near-close near-back rounded vowel		 bTemplate:Bold dark redde Template:Footnote
aɪ Open front unrounded vowel
Near-close near-front unrounded vowel		 crTemplate:Bold dark red
aʊ Open front unrounded vowel
Near-close near-back rounded vowel		 bTemplate:Bold dark red
ɔɪ Open-mid back rounded vowel
Close front unrounded vowel		 bTemplate:Bold dark red
ʊɝ/ʊə Near-close near-back rounded vowel
Schwa		 bTemplate:Bold dark red Template:Footnote
ɛɝ/ɛə Open-mid front unrounded vowel
Schwa		 fTemplate:Bold dark red Template:Footnote

Notes:

It is the vowels that differ most from region to region.

Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation.

  1. American English lacks this sound; words with this sound are pronounced with /ɑ/ or /ɔ/.
  2. Many dialects of North American English do not have this vowel. See Cot-caught merger.
  3. The North American variation of this sound is a rhotic vowel.
  4. Many speakers of North American English do not distinguish between these two unstressed vowels. For them, roses and Rosa's are pronounced the same, and the symbol usually used is schwa /ə/.
  5. This sound is often transcribed with /i/ or with /ɪ/.
  6. The diphthongs /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ are monophthongal for many General American speakers, as /eː/ and /oː/.
  7. The letter <U> can represent either /u/ or the iotated vowel /ju/. In BRP, if this iotated vowel /ju/ occurs after /t/, /d/, /s/ or /z/, it often triggers palatalization of the preceding consonant, turning it to /ʨ/, /ʥ/, /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ respectively, as in tune, during, sugar, and azure. In American English, palatalization does not generally happen unless the /ju/ is followed by r, with the result that /(t,d,s,z)jur/ turn to /tʃɚ/, /dʒɚ/, /ʃɚ/ and /ʒɚ/ respectively, as in nature, verdure, sure, and treasure.
  8. Vowel length plays a phonetic role in the majority of English dialects, and is said to be phonemic in a few dialects, such as Australian English and New Zealand English. In certain dialects of the modern English language, for instance General American, there is allophonic vowel length: vowel phonemes are realized as long vowel allophones before voiced consonant phonemes in the coda of a syllable. Before the Great Vowel Shift, vowel length was phonemically contrastive.
  9. This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In some accents, this sound may be, instead of /ʊə/, /ɔ:/. See pour-poor merger.
  10. This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In some accents, the schwa offglide of /ɛə/ may be dropped, monophthising and lengthening the sound to /ɛ:/.

See also

Consonants

This is the English Consonantal System using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

  bilabial labio-
dental		 dental alveolar post-
alveolar		 palatal velar glottal
plosive p  b     t  d     k  ɡ  
nasal m     n     ŋ Template:Footnote  
flap       ɾ Template:Footnote        
fricative   f  v θ  ð Template:Footnote s  z ʃ  ʒ Template:Footnote ç Template:Footnote x Template:Footnote h
affricate         tʃ  dʒ Template:Footnote      
approximant       ɹ Template:Footnote   j    
lateral approximant       l        
  labial-velar
approximant ʍ  wTemplate:Footnote
  1. The velar nasal [ŋ] is a non-phonemic allophone of /n/ in some northerly British accents, appearing only before /g/. In all other dialects it is a separate phoneme, although it only occurs in syllable codas.
  2. The alveolar flap [ɾ] is an allophone of /t/ and /d/ in unstressed syllables in North American English and increasinglyTemplate:Verify source in Australian English. This is the sound of "tt" or "dd" in the words latter and ladder, which are homophones for many speakers of North American English. In some accents such as Scottish English and Indian English it replaces /ɹ/. This is the same sound represented by single "r" in most varieties of Spanish.
  3. In some dialects, such as Cockney, the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ are usually merged with /f/ and /v/, and in others, like African American Vernacular English, /ð/ is merged with dental /d/. In some Irish varieties, /θ/ and /ð/ become the corresponding dental plosives, which then contrast with the usual alveolar plosives.
  4. The sounds /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /ɹ/ are labialised in some dialects. Labialisation is never contrastive in initial position and therefore is sometimes not transcribed. Most speakers of General American realize <r> (always rhoticized) as the retroflex approximant /ɻ/, whereas the same is realized in Scottish English, etc. as the alveolar trill.
  5. The voiceless palatal fricative /ç/ is in most accents just an allophone of /h/ before /j/; for instance human /çjuːmən/. However, in some accents (see this), the /j/ is dropped, but the initial consonant is the same.
  6. The voiceless velar fricative /x/ is used only by Scottish or Welsh speakers of English for Scots/Gaelic words such as loch /lɒx/ or by some speakers for loanwords from German and Hebrew like Bach /bax/ or Chanukah /xanuka/. In some dialects such as Scouse (Liverpool) either [x] or the affricate [kx] may be used as an allophone of /k/ in words such as docker [dɒkxə]. Most native speakers have a great deal of trouble pronouncing it correctly when learning a foreign language. Most speakers use the sounds [k] and [h] instead.
  7. Voiceless w [ʍ] is found in Scottish and Irish English, as well as in some varieties of American, New Zealand, and English English. In most other dialects it is merged with /w/, in some dialects of Scots it is merged with /f/.

Voicing and aspiration

Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given:

  • Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ p/, / t/, / k/, and / tʃ/) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable — compare pin [pʰɪn] and spin [spɪn], crap [kʰɹ̥æp] and scrap [skɹæp].
    • In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well.
    • In other dialects, such as Indo-Pakistani English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated.
  • Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects.
  • Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects (e.g. many varieties of American English) — examples: tap [ tʰæp̚], sack [ sæk̚].
  • Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) — examples: sad [ sæd̥], bag [ bæɡ̊]. In other dialects they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position.

See also

International Phonetic Alphabet for English

Supra-segmental features

Tone groups

English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question.

In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example:

- /duː juː niːd ˈɛnɪˌθɪŋ/ Do you need anything?
- /aɪ dəʊnt | nəʊ/ I don't, no
- /aɪ dəʊnt nəʊ/ I don't know (contracted to, for example, - /aɪ dəʊnəʊ/ or /aɪ dənəʊ/ I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further)

Characteristics of intonation

English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. All good dictionaries of English mark the accentuated syllable(s) by either placing an apostrophe-like ( ˈ ) sign either before (as in IPA, Oxford English Dictionary, or Merriam-Webster dictionaries) or after (as in many other dictionaries) the syllable where the stress accent falls. In general, for a two-syllable word in English, it can be broadly said that if it is a noun or an adjective, the first syllable is accentuated; but if it is a verb, the second syllable is accentuated.

Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example:

That | was | the | best | thing | you | could | have | done!

Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words "best" and "done", which are stressed. "Best" is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable.

The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example:

John hadn't stolen that money. (... Someone else had.)
John hadn't stolen that money. (... You said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.)
John hadn't stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.)
John hadn't stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.)
John hadn't stolen that money. (... He stole something else.)

Also

I didn't tell her that. (... Someone else told her.)
I didn't tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... But now I will!)
I didn't tell her that. (... I didn't say it; she could have inferred it, etc.)
I didn't tell her that. (... I told someone else.)
I didn't tell her that. (... I told her something else.)

The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positive/negative opposition; thus, falling pitch means 'polarity known', while rising pitch means 'polarity unknown'. This underlies the rising pitch of 'yes/no' questions. For example:

When do you want to be paid?
Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "can I be paid now?" or "do you desire to be paid now?")
Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.")

Grammar

Main article: English grammar

English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular.

At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as rich resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive tenses.

Vocabulary

Germanic words (generally words of German or to a lesser extent Scandinavian origin) which include all the basics such as pronouns (I, my, you, it) and conjunctions (and, or, but) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English, and more common in ordinary speech. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive or superfluous use of Latinate words is, at times, considered by some to be either pretentious (as in the stereotypical policeman's talk of "apprehending the suspect") or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" criticises this style of writing, among other perceived misuse of the language.

An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: "come" or "arrive"; "sight" or "vision"; "freedom" or "liberty." In some cases there is a choice between a Germanic word (oversee), a Latin word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). The richness of the language arises from the variety of different meanings and nuances such synonyms harbour, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with t