The history and meaning of English language

English is an Indo-European, West Germanic language originating in England, and is the mother language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the Philippines. English is a West Germanic language originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the Northern Netherlands. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion :
a) in the 8th and 9th centuries by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family
b) by Normans in the 11th century
Thanks to these two invasions English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary.
Significance
Moderrn English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca is the dominant international language in communications, science, business and diplomacy.
The initial reason for its enormous spread was the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its influence had won a truly global reach.
A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions and as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level. Linguists recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren). English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries.
In the EU, a large fraction of the population reports being able to converse to some extent in English. Among non-English speaking countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Finland, Austria, Belgium and Germany from 50 to 60 %.
Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world.