More than 650 million people use it. Seventy-five percent of the world’s mail and sixty percent of the world’s phone calls are on it. You use it too! It is the English language. But how did it become the language we know today?

The first inhabitants of Great Britain were the Celts. In the first century, the Romans invaded Britain and stayed for almost four hundred years until they returned to central Europe to protect their borders.

Following his departure, three northern European tribes invaded Britain; They were the Jutes, Saxons and Angles. The language they spoke was similar to Frisian, the language of the northeastern region of the Netherlands. The Celts fled to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the South West of England and the English language began to develop.

The name England comes from England, which means land of the Angles. The language developed slowly until the Norman invasion of Britain, led by William the Conqueror, in AD 1066. This first stage of the language is called Old English and bears little resemblance to Modern English.

Here is an example from Old English.

Feder ure u,e cart in heofonum

yes in nama gehalgod tobecume in rice gewure in willa in eorôan swa swa in heofonum

The Normans spoke an old French dialect called Anglo-Norman and this language mixed with Old English creating new words and phrases. The language from 1100 AD to 1500 AD is known as Middle English.

Here is the same text in Middle English.

Our fadir at art in heuenes haiwid be i name;

reume or kingdom come to be. To be me Will don here how is doun in heuene.

The standardization of the language came after William Caxton brought the first printing press to England in 1476 and the production of the first English dictionary in 1604. The language from 1500 AD. C. until 1800 d. C. is called Early Modern English.

Here is the same text in early modern English.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Now it is recognizable.

English from AD 1800 to the present is called Late Modern English. The main difference is the amount of vocabulary, which increased dramatically due to the industrial revolution and the rise of the British Empire. The former resulted in new words being needed for new inventions, and the latter encouraged the adoption of foreign words. Old English had a vocabulary of about sixty thousand words; Modern English has more than six hundred thousand.

But how do you create new words?

New words generally come from one of five sources. Some words are made from nothing. Shakespeare invented more than 1,600 words and phrases. Some words are created by mistake; the word buttonhole comes from the mishearing of the word to button.

Many words are borrowed from other languages. The Aztecs made a drink with cocoa beans and water called choco-atl, which means bitter water. The Spanish found the drink in Mexico and changed the name to chocolato. The drink came to Europe with the addition of sugar and became chocolate. The word checkmate in chess comes from the Farsi language of Iran and Afghanistan, shah-k-mate means that the king is dead. The word pajamas comes from India.

Many words have changed meaning since they were first used. The word counting used to mean counting, so people who count money in banks are called bank tellers. The expression “you’re fired” comes from the fact that historically, clans used to get rid of unwanted neighbors by burning down their houses.

Finally, new words are created using suffixes and prefixes. For example, argument to argument and interest to disinterest. Words can be put together to make new words, like hair and brush to make hairbrush. Many words that our grandparents used have changed. Now we say bus, not bus, stroller, instead of stroller, and exam instead of exam.

There are also regional variations; in South Wales they are called daps, in the North of England pumps, in South England tennis shoes and in North America sneakers. What in Britain is a flat is in North America an apartment. In Britain, people walk on the pavement, drive cars and fill them up with petrol. In the US, people use the sidewalk, drive cars, and fill up with gas. These differences in language led Oscar Wilde to say, “Today we have everything in common with the United States, except, of course, language.”

Although only about sixteen percent of known Old English words have descendants today, about half of the most commonly used words in modern English have Old English roots, such as be, water, and strong. An educated person knows about twenty thousand words and uses an average of two thousand a week. But why has English become such a popular language?

This is because other countries have adopted it as their native language, such as in North America, Canada, and Australia, among others. The number of people who speak English is second only to the number of people who speak Mandarin Chinese. English, however, is more widespread, with more than forty-five countries including it as the official or co-official language of the country. Many people choose to learn English as a foreign language either out of interest or need, which increases their command of other languages.

The language will undoubtedly continue to grow and change, and although the Queen speaks English, she is far from alone.