English

The early mediaeval residents of England spoke the earliest varieties of English, which is a West Germanic language belonging to the Indo-European language family. It has the name of the Angles, a group of prehistoric Germanic settlers in Great Britain. Although English is most closely related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages in terms of its linguistic lineage, it also has some Old Norse grammar and a tiny amount of core vocabulary. Additionally, roughly 29% of modern English words have French or Latin dialectal influences (a North Germanic language). The term “Anglophone” refers to English speakers.