Essay from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1 (A), University of Kassel (FB Anglistics), language: English, abstract: Introduction 1.1 Why I have chosen this subject for my essay? The topic of my essay, development of the English language, directly refers to the theme of our seminar “linguistics” because this evolution plays an important role at the consistence of linguistics. 1.2 Brief information about the English language English is a Germanic language of the Indo – European family. It is the second most spoken language in the world. It is estimated that there are 300 million native speakers and 300 million who use English as a second language in the world and a further 100 million use it as a foreign language. It is the language of science, aviation, computing, diplomacy and tourism. In 45 countries English is the official or co – official language. [...]