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Concept information

Preferred term

engEnglish  

Type

  • Language

Definition

  • English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria. Following the extensive influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 18th century, via the British Empire, and of the United States since the mid-20th century, it has been widely dispersed around the world, becoming the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions. It is widely learned as a second language and used as an official language of the European Union and many Commonwealth countries, as well as in many world organisations. It is the third most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

Entry terms

  • English language

ISO 639-1 code

  • en

ISO 639-2 Bibliographical code

  • eng

ISO 639-2 Terminological code

  • eng

ISO 639-3 code

  • eng

Notation

  • eng

In other languages

  • Anglais

    French

  • anglais
  • Englisch

    German

  • Englische Sprache
  • inglese

    Italian

  • Lingua inglese
  • Portuguese

  • Língua inglesa
  • inglés

    Spanish

  • Idioma inglés

URI

http://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/eng

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