Chiru Ionela, specializarea Italiana-Engleza, an III – semestrul II The evoluon of English language “Some 80 per cent of English vocabulary is not Germanic at all. If a present-day Dr Who were to travel back to AD 449, when the first Anglo-Saxon boats arrived, his biggest issue would not be alien monsters, but geng the Anglo-Saxons to understand his alien words.” (David Crystal) In his book The Story of English in 100 Words, the English linguist David Crystal underlines the fact that language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects. In his opinion, the story of English has to show these differences too. In parcular, the words we use when we speak are not the same as those we use when we write. It’s the colloquial words which tend to be neglected. He include words that represent a history of debate over usage, as well as words that tell the story of regional dialects. I agree with David Crystal when he says that “are far more people who are speaking a non-standard variety of English than people who are speaking standard English, and their story must also be told.” A feature of English that makes it different compared with all other languages is its global spread. Around a third of the world’s populaon – about two billion people – use English now, and one of the consequences has been the emergence of internaonal dialects, each with its own local vocabulary. The process started when Brish and American English diverged, but it has connued since with many “new Englishes” in south and south-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Caribbean and Africa. All have contributed many words to English. D. Crystal had came to this conclusion that English speakers from all parts of the world have used their language like a vacuum cleaner, eagerly sucking in words from other languages whenever they find it useful to do so. And because of the way English has travelled around the globe, courtesy of its soldiers, sailors, traders and civil servants, several hundred languages have contributed to its lexical character. The linguist says that “English is also a playful language, whose speakers love to use their imaginaons in creang new vocabulary, and who are prepared to depart from tradion when coining words.” But not all languages are like this. Many languages are characterised by speakers “who sck rigidly to a single cultural tradion, resisng loanwords and trying to preserve a perceived noon of purity in their vocabulary (as with French and Icelandic). English speakers, for the most part, are quite the opposite. Shakespeare was one of the finest rule-benders, showing everyone how to be daring in the use of words.” 1