English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and eventually became a global lingua franca.
英语是一种西日耳曼语言，最早在中世纪早期的英国使用，最终成为全球通用语言。
It is named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to the area of Great Britain that later took their name, as England. Both names derive from Anglia, a peninsula in the Baltic Sea.
它是以盎格鲁人命名的，盎格鲁人是迁移到大不列颠地区的日耳曼部落之一，后来以他们的名字命名为英格兰。这两个名字都来源于波罗的海半岛安格利亚。
The language is closely related to Frisian and Low Saxon, and its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse (a North Germanic language), and to a greater extent by Latin and French.
该语言与弗里西亚语和下萨克森语密切相关，其词汇受到其他日耳曼语言，特别是挪威语（北日耳曼语言）的显著影响，并且在很大程度上受到拉丁语和法语的影响。
English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century, are collectively called Old English.
英语已经发展了1400多年。英语的最早形式是5世纪盎格鲁撒克逊殖民者带到英国的一组西日耳曼方言，统称为古英语。
Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England; this was a period in which the language was influenced by French.
中世纪英语始于11世纪末，诺曼征服了英格兰，这是一个受法语影响的时期。
Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London, the printing of the King James Bible and the start of the Great Vowel Shift.
早期的现代英语始于15世纪末，随着印刷机的引入伦敦，詹姆斯国王的圣经印刷和大元音移位的开始。
Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, and later the United States, Modern English has been spreading around the world since the 17th century.
通过大英帝国以及后来的美国的全球影响，现代英语自17世纪以来一直在世界各地传播。
Through all types of printed and electronic media, and spurred by the emergence of the United States as a global superpower, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional contexts such as science, navigation and law.
通过各种印刷媒体和电子媒体，在美国成为全球超级大国的推动下，英语已成为国际话语的主导语言，成为科学、航海和法律等许多领域和专业背景下的通用语。
英语的起源从公元5世纪说起。那时欧陆的撒克逊人和盎格鲁人、裘特人，北渡海峡，到了不列颠岛，征服了当地的部落，成了岛上的主人。他们以后就称为盎格鲁·撒克逊人，使用的古日耳曼方言就成了盎格鲁·撒克逊语，也就是古英语。
公元9至10世纪，居住在斯堪的纳维亚的北欧日耳曼人（即诺曼人），征服了今天法国北部的高卢地区。但他们的语言和文化却很快被当地说古法语的高卢人所征服。
这部分法语化了的诺曼人在11世纪又渡海北上征服了整个不列颠，在几个世纪中统治着英国，但在语言的征服上不太成功。这一时期，古英语吸收了大量的古法语和法语化了的希腊拉丁语词汇，使英语的词汇和语法结构发生了巨大的变化。
公元16世纪，进入了近代英语和现代英语的发展时期。这一时期的英语是以英王詹姆斯钦定《圣经》英译本和莎士比亚戏剧为代表的，但和现代英语还有相当大的不同。
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