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The History of English
Due to shifts in global power, English has become a global "lingua franca", perhaps the first in human history. Nearly everybody in the Western world is taught English as their primary language, and Eastern countries teach English as a second language. Anybody who comes in to this world can quickly see how important English is to humans.
If one wants to see the prominence of English in society, they need only look at the industrial world. In textbooks of all sorts, English is the primary language used. No matter what country you go to, the industrial texts are bound to have some amount of English in them.
Despite English's widespread influence, it is not the number one native tongue learned by humans; Mandarin is. This is due to primarily to Chinas immense population, which outnumbers many English-speaking countries combined. However, English is still the second language learned most by those of Chinese origin.
English had a long evolution, starting with Old English in the fifth century. Old English was so distinct that it seems like a different language, but one can see subtle similarities to modern English in it. The most famous work written in Old English was the epic tale of Beowulf.
Old English met its end around the middle of the 11th century when the Norman Conquest started. Due to the new peoples inhabiting England, the language began to change in the midst of all the influence. Most people are familiar with Middle English because of Geoffrey Chaucer's work The Canterbury Tales.
The next stage in English, starting in the late 15th century, was Early Modern English. This was heavily influenced by William Shakespeare, although he was focused on Elizabethan English. His contributions, combined with other peoples, led to today's modern English.
There is no telling what the future holds for this language. It seems that every day new words are being formed and others are becoming obsolete, and this is evident from the updates that major dictionaries need to regularly make.
It has only been recently that English became so prominent, so there is always a chance that another language could overtake it. Due to the prominence of English speaking countries such as the United States and England, it is unlikely that anything like this will happen in the near future.
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