the road to modern english

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1、theRoadtoModernEnglishAttheendofthe16thcentury,aboutfivetosevenmillionpeoplespokeEnglish.NearlyallofthemlivedinEngland.Laterinthenextcentury,peoplefromEnglandmadevoyagestoconquerotherpartsoftheworldandbecauseofthat,Englishbegantobespokeninmanyothercountries.Today,morepeoplespe

2、akEnglishastheirfirst,secondoraforeignlanguagethaneverbefore.NativeEnglishspeakerscanunderstandeachothereveniftheydon’tspeakthesamekindofEnglish.Lookatthisexample:BritishBetty:Wouldyouliketoseemyflat?AmericanAmy:Yes.I’dliketocomeuptoyouapartment.SowhyhasEnglishchangedovertime?

3、Actuallyalllanguageschangeanddevelopwhenculturesmeetandcommunicatewitheachother.AtfisttheEnglishspokeninEnglandbetweenaboutAD450and1150wasverydifferentfromtheEnglishspokentoday.ItwasbasemoreonGermanthantheEnglishwespeakatpresent.ThengraduallybetweenaboutAD800and1150,Englishbec

4、amelesslikeGermanbecausethosewhoruledEnglandspokefirstDanishandlaterFrench.ThesenewsettlersenrichedtheEnglishlanguageandespeciallyitsvocabulary.Sobythe1600’sShakespearewasabletomakeuseofawidervocabularythaneverbefore.In1620someBritishsettlersmovedtoAmerica.Laterinthe18thcentur

5、ysomeBritishpeopleweretakentoAustraliatoo.Englishbegantobespokeninbothcountries.Finallybythe19thcenturythelanguagewassettled.AtthattimetwobigchangesinEnglishspellinghappened:firstSamuelJohnsonwrotehisdictionaryandlaterNoahWebsterwroteTheAmericanDictionaryoftheEnglishlanguage.T

6、helattergaveaseparateidentitytoAmericanEnglishspelling.EnglishnowisalsospokenasaforeignorsecondlanguageinSouthAsia.Forexample,IndiahasaverylargenumberoffluentEnglishspeakersbecauseBritainruledIndiafrom1765to1947.DuringthattimeEnglishbecamethelanguageforgovernmentandeducation.E

7、nglishisalsospokeninSingaporeandMalaysiaandcountriesinAfricasuchasSouthAfrica.TodaythenumberofpeoplelearningEnglishinChinaisincreasingrapidly.Infact,ChinamayhavethelargestnumberofEnglishlearners.WillChineseEnglishdevelopitsownidentity?Onlytimewilltell.通向现代英语之路16世纪末期大约有5百万至7百万人

8、说英语，几乎所有这些人都生活在英国。后来，在17世纪英国人开始航海征服了世界其它地区。于是，许多别的国家开始说英语了。如今