Dialects: Belfast, Birmingham (Brummie, Brummy), Bolton Lancashire, Central Cumberland, Cockney, Cornwall, Craven Yorkshire, Cumberland, Devonshire, Dorset, Durham, East Anglia, East Devonshire, Edinburgh, Geordie, Glaswegian, Lowland Scottish, Newcastle Northumberland, Norfolk, North Lancashire, North Wiltshire, North Yorkshire, Northumberland, Radcliffe Lancashire, Scouse, Sheffield Yorkshire, Somerset, South Wales, Sussex, Tyneside Northumberland, West Country, West Yorkshire, Westmorland. Many local English varieties around the world. Lexical similarity: 60% with German, 27% with French, 24% with Russian.
Status Notes: De facto national language.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 55,600,000 in United Kingdom (ELDIA 2012). Population total all countries: 335,148,868. L2 users: 1,500,000 in United Kingdom (Crystal 2003). L2 users worldwide: 505,000,000.
Language Use: 14,210,000 also use French [fra]. 4,943,000 also use Spanish [spa]. 5,561,000 also use Standard German [deu].
Language Development: Fully developed. Bible: 1382–2002.
Typology: SVO; prepositions; genitives after noun heads; articles, adjectives, numerals before noun heads; question word initial; word order distinguishes subject, object, indirect objects, given and new information, topic and comment; active and passive; causative; comparative; consonant and vowel clusters; nontonal.
Spoken In: Zimbabwe, Vanuatu, Philippines, Uganda, South Africa, United Kingdom, Canada, India, Australia, United States, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Dominica, Eritrea, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, United Arab Emirates, Zambia, Pakistan
Writing System: Braille, Latin
Nation of Origin: United Kingdom, Lebanon, Hong Kong
Other Comments: Christian.