The English Language & Americanisms (video)

Editor's note: the Fourth of July is celebrated as Independence Day in the U.S., commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the United States on July 4, 1776. But the 'Americans' who revolted (predominantly English men and women then living in the 13 original colonies), also kept their mother tongue, which continued to flourish and prosper, in the U.S., and throughout the world.

The "Grand Union Flag" which served as the U.S. national flag from 1776 to 1777:

The Grand Union Flag is considered to be the first national flag of the United States. The design consisted of 13 stripes, red and white, representing the original Thirteen Colonies, the canton on the upper left-hand corner bearing the British Union Flag, the red cross of St. George of England with the white cross of St. Andrew of Scotland. The flag was first flown on December 2, 1775, by John Paul Jones (then a Continental Navy lieutenant), on the ship Alfred in Philadelphia.

The English Language and Americanisms

The Economist's language expert, Lane Greene, knows a thing or two about English. Lane is a fan of words, lots of words, and Lane is an American living in London. He's become accustomed to British English slang. But Lane often hears Britons complain that there are too many American words and expressions creeping into British English, these are called Americanisms. The Economist.com video above first published Nov 23, 2017.

English is the largest language in the world, if you count both native and non-native speakers. If you count only native speakers, Mandarin Chinese is the largest. https://t.co/Yrso3BrPY5 pic.twitter.com/45Pm0KGwPA

— Ethnologue (@theEthnologue) October 2, 2018

About two billion people study English as a non-native language - that's nearly one in three people worldwide. There are more English speakers (native + non-native) worldwide, than of any other language in the world today. As a result, unlike the other major languages in the world today, non-native speakers of English far outnumber native speakers!

The country with the largest number of English speakers (native + non-native) is India, where English is an additional official language for government work along with Hindi. The total population of India will surpass China by 2024.

The UK government classifies the following countries as majority native English speaking: Antigua and Barbuda; Australia; The Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Canada; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Ireland; Jamaica; New Zealand; St Kitts and Nevis; St Lucia; St Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; United Kingdom; United States of America.

The countries that have the best proficiency in English as a second language:

source: statista.com

See also:

• Why English Dominates the Web: Native & Non-Native English Speakers

• English and Technology

• Why English will still be important to Europe in a post-Brexit world | europeanceo.com: "... The rise of Euro-English ... English [is] the most commonly spoken second language in the vast majority of EU countries ..."

• Map: Language Difficulty Ranking For English Speakers

• The English-Speaking Union of the United States

It's always nice when a movie review makes a reference to Shakespeare => ‘The Lion King’ feels way more like ‘Hamlet’ this time — and that’s why it’s so good https://t.co/UCOZLUb4RB via @washingtonpost

— The English-Speaking Union of The United States (@ESU_US) July 22, 2019

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