Modern English

Modern English
New English
present-day English
English
RegionEnglish-speaking world
Era17th century AD – present[1]
Early forms
Latin script (English alphabet)
English Braille, Unified English Braille
Language codes
ISO 639-1en
ISO 639-2eng
ISO 639-3eng
Glottologstan1293
Linguasphere52-ABA

Modern English, sometimes called New English (NE)[2] or present-day English (PDE) as opposed to Middle and Old English, is the form of the English language that has been spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England, which began in the late 14th century and was completed by the 17th century.

With some differences in vocabulary, texts which date from the early 17th century, such as the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, are considered Modern English texts, or more specifically, they are referred to as texts which were written in Early Modern English or they are referred to as texts which were written in Elizabethan English. Through colonization, English was adopted in many regions of the world by the British Empire, such as Anglo-America, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Modern English has many dialects spoken in many countries throughout the world, sometimes collectively referred to as the English-speaking world. These dialects include (but are not limited to) American, Australian, British (containing Anglo-English, Scottish English and Welsh English), Canadian, New Zealand, Caribbean, Hiberno-English (including Ulster English), Indian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Nigerian, Philippine, Singaporean, and South African English.

According to the Ethnologue, there are almost one billion speakers of English as a first or second language.[3] English is spoken as a first or a second language in many countries, with most native speakers being in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland. It "has more non-native speakers than any other language, is more widely dispersed around the world and is used for more purposes than any other language". Its large number of speakers, plus its worldwide presence, have made English a common language (lingua franca) "of the airlines, of the sea and shipping, of computer technology, of science and indeed of (global) communication generally".[4]

  1. ^ Terttu Nevalainen: An Introduction to Early Modern English, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 1
  2. ^ Sihler 2000, p. xvi.
  3. ^ Lewis, M. Paul; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2016). "English". Ethnologue. SIL International. Retrieved 22 February 2016. Total users in all countries: 942,533,930 (as L1: 339,370,920; as L2: 603,163,010)
  4. ^ Algeo & Pyles 2004, p. 222.