Although Mandarin Chinese is the language with the most native speakers, English is the most widely spoken language in the world. It has at least 1.5 billion speakers worldwide. In addition, 67 countries have English as an official language, and it is the only language that is an official language on all five continents. As a result, it is one of the most widely learned languages in the world.
English learners can look for similarities between English and other languages. To do this, it’s necessary to go back in time to look at the origins of this language. If you want to know what language is closest to English, keep reading this article.
The origins of English
English is a West Germanic language that belongs to the Indo-European language family. If we look back at its origins, we discover that English originated from the evolution of several Germanic dialects, now collectively called Anglo-Saxon. These were brought to the east coast of Britain by Germanic settlers, the Anglo-Saxons, around the 5th century AD.
On the other hand, English is also closely related to French. After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, French became the language of the court, government, and culture. As a result, English took on many words from this language, resulting today in a unique blend of Germanic and Romance elements. So, we might think that the languages that are closest to English would be German or French. However, this is not the case.
Frisian, the closest to English
Spoken in the Netherlands and Germany, Frisian can be considered the language that is closest to English since they share a significant amount of their grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. Both belong to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, but time, geographic isolation, and cultural influences led them to evolve independently.
This similarity entails a slight mutual intelligibility. For example, “boi” in Frisian is “boy” in English and “tolve” in Frisian means “twelve” in English. Phonetically, the similarities are also extensive, and both languages employ similar intonation patterns, giving them a similar rhythm and melody. However, despite the similarities they share, an English speaker would not immediately understand a Frisian speaker since modern English is heavily influenced by other languages.
Other similar languages
In addition to Frisian, there are other languages that share many similarities with English. These are German and French.
Characteristics shared with German
English and German are connected through their common West Germanic roots. Many words in both languages share a root. For example, “haus,” is “house” in English; “maus” is “mouse;” and “finden” is “to find.” On the other hand, English has borrowed a number of words from German such as “rucksack” which means backpack, or the word “angst” to describe anxiety.
Special characteristics shared with French
English and French are almost like first cousins. They are very similar to each other since they have had a mutual influence on each other throughout history and culture. “Ballet,” “entrepreneur,” and “genre” are some English words that originate from the French language. In other words, their similarities are basically lexical.
English, a lingua franca
Although English shares characteristics with several other languages, it has evolved enormously from its origins to the present day. It has been acquiring special features that make it unique. Moreover, it has expanded worldwide, becoming today a kind of lingua franca, that is to say, a language used for international communication.
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