 By about 1700, the English language differed only slightly from present-day English. The most important development was external. It concerned the position of the English language among the languages of the world. From a regional language, it developed to the most widely used language of our time. Hence, over and above the discussion of the linguistic changes that affected English after 1700, we will look at the spread of English and we will discuss the position of English as a global language in this e-lecture. So let us start with the linguistic changes that affected the English language after the early modern English period. The main linguistic properties of present-day English had been manifested by the end of the early modern English period. The changes that had begun during the middle English period were by and large completed. Second-person singular forms, along with the pronouns thou and thee, had disappeared from ordinary educated speech. And the auxiliary do, well, do had come to be used as we use it today. In the N-I-C-E context, do you remember? N negation, I don't go. I inversion, do I go? C coding, I go, don't I? And E emphasis, I do go. Nevertheless, a number of changes between early modern English and present-day English need further consideration. And these concern changes in the sound system and changes in the vocabulary. So let's briefly look at some sound changes that affected the English language after 1700. In general, the sound system of present-day English was established by the end of the early modern English period when the Great Baal shift was completed in most varieties of English. Most changes since early modern English have been alophonic rather than phonemic. And now we have to distinguish between the English spoken in the heartland England and the Englishes elsewhere. Let us look at two examples that affected the present-day English sound system. The most important, consonant aspect that affected the English language was the reduction of roticity in some varieties of English, especially in British English. You remember roticity? The use of the post-vocalic R in words such as farm, far, etc. Now, as you know, in the North American variety, roticity is now pretty high. In Irish English it is high, whereas in England, in RP, it is extremely low. Scottish has a medium degree of roticity. Well, let's move the label high over here. And the varieties on the Australian continent in Australia and New Zealand are pretty low. In the vocalic system, the central changes affected the diphthongs. They were either smoothed to monophthongs. For example, A became E in some varieties. Or new diphthongs entered the system, I, O, etc. in some varieties. Let's now continue with the vocabulary. During the Middle English and early modern English periods, great increases in the English lexicon could be observed. The vocabulary of present-day English has continued to expand at an incredible rate. The main process of vocabulary expansion was borrowing. However, while the bulk of long words in Middle English were borrowings from French that ranged across the entire spectrum of semantic areas in early modern English, borrowings were primarily from Latin and Greek, and they tended to be more learned words of a stylistically formal kind. However, while in previous periods, all areas of the vocabulary of English were affected, the bulk of recent borrowings belonged to specific areas that can only be understood by educated experts. So in present-day English, growth via long words continues and affects by and large scientific and technical terms. The words have often been created in present-day English out of previously borrowed elements. Thus, the classical vocabulary of present-day English is larger than the total known vocabularies of Latin and Greek. Since present-day English has composed so many new Greek and Latin words by means of affixation, for example, by prefixes such as auto, hypo, x, intra, and so on. Beyond these scientific borrowings, present-day English has borrowed freely from other languages. For example, from French words such as beige, blau's menu, or restaurant. From Afrikaans over here, Trek, Artwark, to name two examples, from languages such as Italian, Salami, Fiasco, Inferno. Here are some German words, Seminar, Gestalt, Pretzel, and last but not least, least words from Spanish, such as Bonanza, Gaucho, or Taco. Another method of expanding the vocabulary of present-day English is the creation of new words by means of word formation processes. And these processes have led to an enormous rate of vocabulary expansion by means of the standard processes such as derivation and compounding. Now, in derivation, several new affixes came in such as autosuggestion, ultrasonic, neodermic, and so on and so forth, and so the pool of derivatives could be enormously expanded. And in compounding, as you can see over here, the most common type by far is a combination of two existing nouns as in Asset Rock, Cable TV, and Ghetto Blaster, to name just three of them. Further word formation processes involve, among others, blends such as brunch, breakfast and lunch, words such as these over here, so-called acronyms, UNESCO and NATO are two examples. Re-duplications such as Yum-Yum or Ding-Dong, back formations such as editor that becomes edit, diplomatic becomes diplomat, and clippings where parts of words have clipped off, violin cello can be used as cello and chimpanzee can become chimp. Let us now turn our attention to the outer development of English. The first significant step in the progress of English towards its status as a global language did not take place before the end of the 16th century. By the end of the reign of Elizabeth I in 1603, literature had boomed through the works of Spencer, Marlowe and Shakespeare, and Francis Drake and Walter Rawley had laid the foundation for expanding the English influence in the New World. According to the Indian linguist Braj Kashru, the spread of English around the world can be defined in terms of three concentric circles. The inner circle refers to the traditional historical and sociolinguistic origins of English, where it is used as a first or native language, and that of course concerns Great Britain and Ireland, then in North America, Canada and the United States, and of course Australia and New Zealand, the inner circle. Now the inner circle constitutes about 400 million speakers, almost 70% of which are from the United States. The outer circle includes countries colonized by Britain and the United States, where English is spoken as a second language, and where it plays an important historical and governmental role in multilingual settings. Here are the main ones. In Asia we have countries such as India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, to name just three of them. In Africa we have South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania. And then the Philippines over here, and let's put Jamaica over here to name just a few. There are other countries such as Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Zambia. So a total of 400 million speakers belong to the outer circle, that is the circle that defines English as a second or official language. The countries in the expanding circle did not institutionalize English as an official language, but recognized the importance of English as a foreign language. These countries include Israel, Japan, China, Egypt, Korea, Nepal, Russia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia and of course Western Europe and the Caribbean, and of course the South African subcontinent with more than one billion speakers. Let us take a brief look at the inner circle development and let's start with North America. The first permanent English settlement in North America began with the arrival of England's second exhibition in 1607. The first by Sir Walter Raleigh and his fellow explorers who arrived in 1584 had been forced to return to England as a consequence of conflicts with the native people. The new Southern colonists came mainly from England's West country. Their tidewater accents still exist in some isolated valleys. They are said to be the closest to the sound of Shakespeare's early modern English. And then in 1620 the first group of Puritans arrived on the Mayflower. These people did not want to return to England. What the pilgrim fathers had in common was their search for a land where they could found a new religious kingdom which should be free from persecution. 1681 brought new shiploads of immigrants, the so-called Quakers from the north of England and the North Midlands who settled in Pennsylvania. Later there was a vast wave of immigration from Northern Ireland and Scotland to this area. By the time independence was declared in 1776, one in seven of the colonial population was Scots Irish. Today the following major dialects can be defined in North America. On the one hand we have ethnic varieties such as African American Vernacular English and American Indian English. On the other hand we have the regional varieties such as North Eastern American English, Southern States American English, Canadian English to name just three of them. Let's take a brief look at Australia. In Australia Britain established its first penal colony at Sydney after James Cook's visit in 1770 in order to relieve the pressure on the overcrowded prisons in England. The about 130,000 prisoners were followed by a wave of settlers. By 1850 the population of Australia was about 400,000 and by 1900 nearly 4 million. Today almost 80 million people live on the Australian continent. The British Isles provided the main source of settlers and thus the main influence on the English language in Australia. And what about the future? Well in so far as there has ever been such a thing as a world language, English is one today. During less than 300 years English developed from a regional language to a global language. Today English constitutes the most widely used individual language with more than 300 million native speakers and more than 1.5 billion official users. In considering the future development of English the following main aspects have to be considered. First there is the role of the British Empire. Some sociolinguists expect a strong reaction against continuing to use the language of the former colonial power and in favour of promoting the indigenous languages spoken in particular regions. The role of the United States and the North American influence has to be considered. The United States has the largest percentage of native speakers of English and the country has been influential in many ways. For example it is more involved in modern developments than any other nation. It is a control of the digital revolution. Hence it dominance and the dominance of American English may even increase. Next we have to consider the rise of new Englishes. The spread of English around the world will have an important consequence. English will become more open to linguistic change with totally unpredictable results. The emergence of new varieties of English in territories where the language has taken root demonstrates this. These new Englishes are somewhat like the dialects we all recognise within our own country except that they are on an international scale applying to whole countries or regions. Well and last but not least the emergence of a world English. In the future with many national Englishes little would change. People would still have their national dialects for use within their own countries. However when the need came to communicate with people from other countries they would use a globally understandable form a type of world standard spoken English. This standard already exists in its infancy and it continues to develop especially through the use of the internet and modern mass media. Thereby international intelligibility is guaranteed while at the same time national identity is preserved. Well let's summarize. In this e-lecture we discuss the changes that affected the English language between 1700 and today and discuss the development of English from a global perspective. Today English constitutes the most widely used language of our time. From a regional language it has developed into the world's number one communication system if you wish into a global lingua franca. Thanks for your attention.