The English languages (also called the Anglic languages or Insular Germanic languages) are a group of linguistic varieties including Old English and the languages descended from it. These include Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English; Early Scots, Middle Scots, and Modern Scots; and the now extinct Yola and Fingalian in Ireland.
English-based creole languages are not generally included, as only their lexicon, not their linguistic structure, comes from English.
| Old English (Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, West Saxon) | |||||
Famous quotes containing the words english and/or languages:
“My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the obscurity of a learned language.”
—Edward Gibbon (1737–1794)
“The trouble with foreign languages is, you have to think before your speak.”
—Swedish proverb, trans. by Verne Moberg.