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Available in 18 languages" > <label id="p-lang-btn-label" for="p-lang-btn-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive mw-portlet-lang-heading-18" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-language-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language-progressive"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">18 languages</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ar mw-list-item"><a href="https://ar.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%A9" title="اللغة الإنجليزية – Arabic" lang="ar" hreflang="ar" data-title="اللغة الإنجليزية" data-language-autonym="العربية" data-language-local-name="Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>العربية</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-as mw-list-item"><a href="https://as.wikiquote.org/wiki/%E0%A6%87%E0%A6%82%E0%A7%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C%E0%A7%80_%E0%A6%AD%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B7%E0%A6%BE" title="ইংৰাজী ভাষা – Assamese" lang="as" hreflang="as" data-title="ইংৰাজী ভাষা" data-language-autonym="অসমীয়া" data-language-local-name="Assamese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>অসমীয়া</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-az mw-list-item"><a href="https://az.wikiquote.org/wiki/%C4%B0ngilis_dili" title="İngilis dili – Azerbaijani" lang="az" hreflang="az" data-title="İngilis dili" data-language-autonym="Azərbaycanca" data-language-local-name="Azerbaijani" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Azərbaycanca</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cs mw-list-item"><a href="https://cs.wikiquote.org/wiki/Angli%C4%8Dtina" title="Angličtina – Czech" lang="cs" hreflang="cs" data-title="Angličtina" data-language-autonym="Čeština" data-language-local-name="Czech" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Čeština</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikiquote.org/wiki/Englisch" title="Englisch – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Englisch" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-eo mw-list-item"><a href="https://eo.wikiquote.org/wiki/Angla_lingvo" title="Angla lingvo – Esperanto" lang="eo" hreflang="eo" data-title="Angla lingvo" data-language-autonym="Esperanto" data-language-local-name="Esperanto" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Esperanto</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikiquote.org/wiki/Idioma_ingl%C3%A9s" title="Idioma inglés – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="Idioma inglés" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-et mw-list-item"><a href="https://et.wikiquote.org/wiki/Inglise_keel" title="Inglise keel – Estonian" lang="et" hreflang="et" data-title="Inglise keel" data-language-autonym="Eesti" data-language-local-name="Estonian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Eesti</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fa mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D8%B2%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A7%D9%86%DA%AF%D9%84%DB%8C%D8%B3%DB%8C" title="زبان انگلیسی – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="زبان انگلیسی" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>فارسی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-he mw-list-item"><a href="https://he.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D7%90%D7%A0%D7%92%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%AA" title="אנגלית – Hebrew" lang="he" hreflang="he" data-title="אנגלית" data-language-autonym="עברית" data-language-local-name="Hebrew" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>עברית</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hy mw-list-item"><a href="https://hy.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D4%B1%D5%B6%D5%A3%D5%AC%D5%A5%D6%80%D5%A5%D5%B6" title="Անգլերեն – Armenian" lang="hy" hreflang="hy" data-title="Անգլերեն" data-language-autonym="Հայերեն" data-language-local-name="Armenian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Հայերեն</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lingua_inglese" title="Lingua inglese – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="Lingua inglese" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nn mw-list-item"><a href="https://nn.wikiquote.org/wiki/Engelsk" title="Engelsk – Norwegian Nynorsk" lang="nn" hreflang="nn" data-title="Engelsk" data-language-autonym="Norsk nynorsk" data-language-local-name="Norwegian Nynorsk" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Norsk nynorsk</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pl mw-list-item"><a href="https://pl.wikiquote.org/wiki/J%C4%99zyk_angielski" title="Język angielski – Polish" lang="pl" hreflang="pl" data-title="Język angielski" data-language-autonym="Polski" data-language-local-name="Polish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Polski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%8F%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%BA" title="Английский язык – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Английский язык" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uk mw-list-item"><a href="https://uk.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%BB%D1%96%D0%B9%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0" title="Англійська мова – Ukrainian" lang="uk" hreflang="uk" data-title="Англійська мова" data-language-autonym="Українська" data-language-local-name="Ukrainian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Українська</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-vi mw-list-item"><a href="https://vi.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ti%E1%BA%BFng_Anh" title="Tiếng Anh – Vietnamese" lang="vi" hreflang="vi" data-title="Tiếng Anh" data-language-autonym="Tiếng Việt" data-language-local-name="Vietnamese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Tiếng Việt</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh.wikiquote.org/wiki/%E8%8B%B1%E8%AF%AD" title="英语 – Chinese" lang="zh" hreflang="zh" data-title="英语" data-language-autonym="中文" data-language-local-name="Chinese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>中文</span></a></li> </ul> <div 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history</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-tb" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-tb" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> General </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="t-whatlinkshere" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/English_language" title="A list of all wiki pages that link here [j]" accesskey="j"><span>What links here</span></a></li><li id="t-recentchangeslinked" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:RecentChangesLinked/English_language" rel="nofollow" title="Recent changes in pages linked from this page [k]" accesskey="k"><span>Related changes</span></a></li><li id="t-upload" class="mw-list-item"><a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:UploadWizard" title="Upload files [u]" accesskey="u"><span>Upload file</span></a></li><li id="t-permalink" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=English_language&oldid=3685557" title="Permanent link to this revision of this 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<div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="coll-create_a_book" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:Book&bookcmd=book_creator&referer=English+language"><span>Create a book</span></a></li><li id="coll-download-as-rl" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:DownloadAsPdf&page=English_language&action=show-download-screen"><span>Download as PDF</span></a></li><li id="t-print" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=English_language&printable=yes" title="Printable version of this page [p]" accesskey="p"><span>Printable version</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-wikibase-otherprojects" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-wikibase-otherprojects" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> In other projects </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="wb-otherproject-link wb-otherproject-commons mw-list-item"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:English_language" hreflang="en"><span>Wikimedia Commons</span></a></li><li class="wb-otherproject-link wb-otherproject-wikibooks mw-list-item"><a href="https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/English-Hanzi" hreflang="en"><span>Wikibooks</span></a></li><li class="wb-otherproject-link wb-otherproject-wikifunctions mw-list-item"><a href="https://www.wikifunctions.org/wiki/Z1002" hreflang="en"><span>Wikifunctions</span></a></li><li class="wb-otherproject-link wb-otherproject-wikipedia badge-Q17437798 badge-goodarticle mw-list-item" title="good article badge"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language" hreflang="en"><span>Wikipedia</span></a></li><li class="wb-otherproject-link wb-otherproject-wikiversity mw-list-item"><a href="https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/English_as_a_second_language" hreflang="en"><span>Wikiversity</span></a></li><li id="t-wikibase" class="wb-otherproject-link wb-otherproject-wikibase-dataitem mw-list-item"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityPage/Q1860" title="Link to connected data repository item [g]" accesskey="g"><span>Wikidata item</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-column-end"> <div class="vector-sticky-pinned-container"> <nav class="vector-page-tools-landmark" aria-label="Page tools"> <div id="vector-page-tools-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> </div> </nav> <nav class="vector-appearance-landmark" aria-label="Appearance"> <div id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> <div id="vector-appearance" class="vector-appearance vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-appearance-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-pinned" data-feature-name="appearance-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-appearance" data-pinned-container-id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-appearance-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Appearance</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.unpin">hide</button> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div id="bodyContent" class="vector-body" aria-labelledby="firstHeading" data-mw-ve-target-container> <div class="vector-body-before-content"> <div class="mw-indicators"> </div> <div id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikiquote</div> </div> <div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><p>The <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language" class="extiw" title="w:English language">English language</a></b> is a member of the pure <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Germanic_Languages" class="extiw" title="w:West Germanic Languages">West Germanic Language Group</a> that originated in <a href="/wiki/England" title="England">England</a>. It is the most widely spoken <a href="/wiki/Language" title="Language">language</a> in the world, it is also one of the best languages in the world, where the first origins of the language known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English" class="extiw" title="w:Old English">Old English</a> were spoken by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon" class="extiw" title="w:Anglo-Saxon">Anglo-Saxon</a> inhabitants of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_in_the_Middle_Ages" class="extiw" title="w:England in the Middle Ages">Early Medieval England</a>. It is named after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angles_(tribe)" class="extiw" title="w:Angles (tribe)">Angles</a>, an ancient <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_peoples" class="extiw" title="w:Germanic peoples">Germanic peoples</a> that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_Settlement_of_Britain" class="extiw" title="w:Anglo-Saxon Settlement of Britain">migrated</a> to the island of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain" class="extiw" title="w:Great Britain">Great Britain</a>. </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Quotes">Quotes</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=English_language&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Quotes"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li>Now the use of English is really a reflection of chicness. Meaning is not always important. <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Breen_(author)" class="extiw" title="w:Michael Breen (author)">Michael Breen</a>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=0V0ODQAAQBAJ&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=%E2%80%9CI+came+here+expecting+the+Third+World+and+I+just+can%E2%80%99t+get+over+it.%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=WF5a7wO1Ip&sig=ACfU3U2Q-_PdCoi13eWYEouHzPRxLkuLHA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj1npnj74HjAhXSo1kKHXvPA9kQ6AEwAHoECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false"><i>The New Koreans: The Story of a Nation</i></a> (2017), p. 21</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The gift of a common tongue is a <a href="/wiki/Priceless" title="Priceless">priceless</a> inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Winston_Churchill" title="Winston Churchill">Winston Churchill</a>, speech at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (September 6, 1943); in Robert Rhodes James, ed., <i>Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897–1963</i> (1974), vol. 7, p. 6825.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Star_Trek" class="mw-disambig" title="Star Trek">To boldly go</a> is rhythmically very neat. The <i>Star Trek</i> scriptwriter hasn't been linguistically bold at all. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/David_Crystal" title="David Crystal">David Crystal</a> in <i>Who Cares About English Usage</i></li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Martin_Luther" title="Martin Luther">Luther</a> is often praised for having given, in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Bible" class="extiw" title="w:Luther Bible">'September Bible'</a>, a language to the emerging German nation. In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale#Legacy" class="extiw" title="w:William Tyndale">his Bible translation</a>, <a href="/wiki/William_Tyndale" title="William Tyndale">Tyndale</a>'s conscious use of everyday words, without inversions, in a neutral word-order, and his wonderful ear for rhythmic patterns, gave to English not only a Bible language, but a new prose. England was blessed as a nation in that the language of its principal book, as the Bible in English rapidly became, was the fountain from which flowed the lucidity, suppleness and expressive range of the greatest prose thereafter. <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Daniell_(author)" class="extiw" title="w:David Daniell (author)">David Daniell</a>, <cite style="font-style:normal" class="book"><i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/books?id=0065SxiVu5kC&pg=PA116">William Tyndale: A Biography</a></i>. Yale University Press. January 2001. p. 116. <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780300068801" title="Special:BookSources/9780300068801">ISBN 9780300068801</a>.</cite><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=William+Tyndale%3A+A+Biography&rft.date=January+2001&rft.pages=p.%26nbsp%3B116&rft.pub=Yale+University+Press&rft.isbn=9780300068801&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3D0065SxiVu5kC%26pg%3DPA116&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:English_language"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span> (1st edition 1994)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The English language is the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven. <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Ralph Waldo Emerson">Ralph Waldo Emerson</a>, cited in <cite style="font-style:normal" class="book"><i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Story_of_English.html?id=xBR5AAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Story of English</a></i>. Faber and Faber. 1986. p. 1. <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780670804672" title="Special:BookSources/9780670804672">ISBN 9780670804672</a>.</cite><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Story+of+English&rft.date=1986&rft.pages=p.%26nbsp%3B1&rft.pub=Faber+and+Faber&rft.isbn=9780670804672&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.co.uk%2Fbooks%2Fabout%2FThe_Story_of_English.html%3Fid%3DxBR5AAAAIAAJ%26redir_esc%3Dy&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:English_language"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>Five generations ago, Britain was ashamed to write books in her own tongue. Now her language is spoken in all quarters of the globe. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Frederick_Douglass" title="Frederick Douglass">Frederick Douglass</a>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/self-made-men/">"Self-Made Men"</a> (1872)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>English is a very powerful language, a colonizer’s language and a gift to a writer. English has destroyed and sucked up the languages of other cultures—its cruelty is its vitality. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Louise_Erdrich" title="Louise Erdrich">Louise Erdrich</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6055/the-art-of-fiction-no-208-louise-erdrich">Interview</a> with The Paris Review (2010)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The English-speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/split_infinitive" class="extiw" title="w:split infinitive">split infinitive</a> is; (2) those who do not know, but care very much; (3) those who know and condemn; (4) those who know and approve; and (5) those who know and distinguish.... <ul><li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fowler%27s_Modern_English_Usage" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Fowler's Modern English Usage">Fowler's Modern English Usage</a></i>, second edition, p. 579.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>[A speaker who uses a multiple negative] spreads as it were a thin layer of negative colouring over the whole sentence instead of confining it to a single place. <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Jespersen" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Otto Jespersen">Otto Jespersen</a>, quoted in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fowler%27s_Modern_English_Usage" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Fowler's Modern English Usage">Fowler's Modern English Usage</a></i>, p 384</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The name ["split infinitive"] is misleading, for the preposition <i>to</i> no more belongs to the infinitive as a necessary part of it, than the definite article belongs to the substantive, and no one would think of calling "the good man" a split substantive. <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Jespersen" class="extiw" title="w:Otto Jespersen">Otto Jespersen</a>, referring to split infinitives, in <i>Essentials of English Grammar</i></li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>I say looking at the next 100 years that there are two trends in the world today. The first trend is toward what we call a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale" class="extiw" title="w:Kardashev scale">type one civilization</a>, a planetary civilization... What is English? English is the beginning of a type one language. Everywhere I go around the Earth, people speak English because that is the lingua franca of <a href="/wiki/Science" title="Science">science</a>, <a href="/wiki/Technology" title="Technology">technology</a>, <a href="/wiki/Business" title="Business">business</a>. They all speak English. It is the number one second language on the planet Earth. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Michio_Kaku" title="Michio Kaku">Michio Kaku</a>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://bigthink.com/videos/will-mankind-destroy-itself">Michio Kaku. "Will Mankind Destroy Itself?"</a>.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary. <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_D._Nicoll" class="extiw" title="w:James D. Nicoll">James D. Nicoll</a> (<a href="/w/index.php?title=1990-05-15&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="1990-05-15 (page does not exist)">1990-05-15</a>). "<i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="news://1990May15.155309.8892@watdragon.waterloo.edu">The King's English</a></i>". <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="news://rec.arts.sf-lovers">rec.arts.sf-lovers</a>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1990May15.155309.8892@watdragon.waterloo.edu">(Google Groups)</a>. </li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>Fussing about split infinitives is one of the more tiresome pastimes invented by nineteenth-century grammarians. <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Strang" class="extiw" title="w:Barbara Strang">Barbara Strang</a> in <i>Modern English Structure</i>.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>Johannes Diderik van der Waals (1837–1923) graduated in 1873 in Leyden with a thesis that would make him famous. It was in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language" class="extiw" title="w:Dutch language">Dutch</a> ... The famous ... physicist James Clerk Maxwell, much impressed with this piece of work, remarked that it had prompted quite a few researchers to take up the study of the 'Low Dutch Language'. ... In 1910, Van der Waals received the Nobel Prize, but the 'Low Dutch Language' never made it as an internationally accepted language of science, which in previous centuries had been <a href="/wiki/Latin" title="Latin">Latin</a> and <a href="/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language">Greek</a>, later <a href="/wiki/German_language" title="German language">German</a>, <a href="/wiki/French_language" title="French language">French</a> and English. Today, to the regret of some, all <a href="/wiki/Science" title="Science">science</a> happens in English. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Gerardus_%27t_Hooft" title="Gerardus 't Hooft">Gerardus 't Hooft</a>, <cite style="font-style:normal" class="book"><i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=e-7eAp-bVbEC&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q=Waals&f=false">In Search of the Ultimate Building Blocks</a></i>. Cambridge University Press. 1997. pp. 4–5. <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780521578837" title="Special:BookSources/9780521578837">ISBN 9780521578837</a>.</cite><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=In+Search+of+the+Ultimate+Building+Blocks&rft.date=1997&rft.pages=pp.%26nbsp%3B4%E2%80%935&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.isbn=9780521578837&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3De-7eAp-bVbEC%26pg%3DPA4%23v%3Donepage%26q%3DWaals%26f%3Dfalse&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:English_language"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li></ul></li> <li>I just wanted to say something about (...) my resentment of the identification of this country of <a href="/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom">Britain</a> with <a href="/wiki/Monarchy_of_the_United_Kingdom" title="Monarchy of the United Kingdom">royalty</a>. As if we have nothing else to offer as a culture – the country of my birth. The great contribution, of the English anyway, to the world is <a href="/wiki/Literature" title="Literature">literature</a> and <a href="/wiki/Language" title="Language">language</a>. That language and literature is, in fact, in its tradition quite extensively <a href="/wiki/Republic" title="Republic">republican</a> and <a href="/wiki/Democracy" title="Democracy">democratic</a>. I mean our <a href="/wiki/William_Blake" title="William Blake">Blake</a>, <a href="/wiki/John_Milton" title="John Milton">Milton</a>, our <a href="/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley" title="Percy Bysshe Shelley">Shelley</a>, many many other great writers, <a href="/wiki/Poetry" title="Poetry">poetry</a> and <a href="/wiki/Prose" class="mw-redirect" title="Prose">prose</a>, have been against the idea that Britain is a <a href="/wiki/Feudal" class="mw-redirect" title="Feudal">feudal</a> or <a href="/wiki/Monarchy" title="Monarchy">monarchic system</a>. One of the great aspects of that <a href="/wiki/Tradition" title="Tradition">tradition</a> is represented by the name <a href="/wiki/Thomas_Paine" title="Thomas Paine">Thomas Paine</a>, who is the moral author of your <a href="/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence" title="United States Declaration of Independence">Declaration of Independence</a>. In fact, one of the great accomplishments of the English republican movement, if you like, is the American Declaration of Independence. So it has always struck me as rather bizarre that there is this cult in the <a href="/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a> of English royalism – just the sort of thing I left <a href="/wiki/England" title="England">England</a> to get away from. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens" title="Christopher Hitchens">Christopher Hitchens</a>, "Christopher Hitchens on Diana, Princess of Wales, the Royal Family, Dodi Fayed & Muslim Law" (1997), Washington, D.C.: C-SPAN, 9 May 199</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>In the English language, if we want to speak of that sugar maple or that salamander, the only grammar that we have to do so is to call those beings an “it.” And if I called my grandmother or the person sitting across the room from me an “it,” that would be so rude, right? And we wouldn’t tolerate that for members of our own species, but we not only tolerate it, but it’s the only way we have in the English language to speak of other beings, is as “it.” In Potawatomi, the cases that we have are animate and inanimate, and it is impossible in our language to speak of other living beings as “its”...the language of “it,” which distances, disrespects, and objectifies, I can’t help but think is at the root of a worldview that allows us to exploit nature. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer" title="Robin Wall Kimmerer">Robin Wall Kimmerer</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://onbeing.org/programs/robin-wall-kimmerer-the-intelligence-of-plants-2022/">Interview</a> on On Being podcast (2022)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>[...] you know what English is? The result of the efforts of Norman men-at-arms to make dates with Saxon barmaids [...], and no more legitimate than any of the other results. <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Beam_Piper" class="extiw" title="w:H. Beam Piper">H. Beam Piper</a>, <cite style="font-style:normal" class="book"><i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/fuzzypapers00piperich/">The Fuzzy Papers</a></i>. Ace Books. 1980. p. 283. <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780441261932" title="Special:BookSources/9780441261932">ISBN 9780441261932</a>.</cite><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Fuzzy+Papers&rft.date=1980&rft.pages=p.%26nbsp%3B283&rft.pub=Ace+Books&rft.isbn=9780441261932&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Ffuzzypapers00piperich%2F&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:English_language"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span> (Omnibus edition of Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Sapiens)</li></ul></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="British_vis-à-vis_American_English"><span id="British_vis-.C3.A0-vis_American_English"></span>British vis-à-vis American English</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=English_language&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: British vis-à-vis American English"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li>It is a misfortune for Anglo-American friendship that the two countries are supposed to have a common language. A <a href="/wiki/French_people" title="French people">Frenchman</a> in America is not expected to talk like an American, but an <a href="/wiki/Englishman" class="mw-redirect" title="Englishman">Englishman</a> speaking his mother tongue is thought to be affected and giving himself airs. Or else he is taken for a <a href="/wiki/Germans" title="Germans">German</a> or a <a href="/wiki/Dutch_people" title="Dutch people">Dutchman</a>, and is complimented on his grammatical mastery of the language of another nation. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Bertrand_Russell" title="Bertrand Russell">Bertrand Russell</a>, "Can Americans and Britons Be Friends?", <i>Saturday Evening Post</i>, 3 June 1944.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw" title="George Bernard Shaw">George Bernard Shaw</a>, widely attributed beginning in the 1940s, e.g. <i>Reader’s Digest</i> (November 1942). Not found in his published works.</li> <li><i>Variant</i>: The English and the Americans are two peoples divided by a common language.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Oscar_Wilde" title="Oscar Wilde">Oscar Wilde</a>, <i>The Canterville Ghost</i> (1887).</li></ul></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=English_language&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/England" title="England">England</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Great_Britain" title="Great Britain">Great Britain</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Linguistics" title="Linguistics">Linguistics</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=English_language&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="noprint" style="clear: right; 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