Private School of
Audentes
Links between English speaking countries and Estonia
Author:
Kristin Liiv
Supervisor: Mari
Martma
Tallinn 2006
Table of contentsIntroduction 3
First links 4
20th century 4
Recognition 8
Conclusions 9
References 10
Introduction
English is considered to be
one of most
important languages in the world. It is one of the
official languages of the United Nations.
According to research by the
British Council,
around 375 million people in the world speak English
as their
native language and English has official or
special status in at least
seventy -five countries. The British Council has also
noted that English is the main language of
newspapers , airports and
air-
traffic control, international business and academic conferences,
science , technology, diplomacy and
sport . Perhaps
even more important
contributor to the
dominant role of the English language in the world
is that over two-thirds of the world's scientists are
able to read in
English. Three quarters of the world's mail is written in English and
eighty per
cent of the world's electronic information is stored in
English.
The
biggest countries where
English is spoken as the first language are: Great
Britain ,
Canada ,
United
States of America and
Australia .
Estonian on in
comparison to
English is a language that is spoken only by
approximately 1 million
people.
On the
other hand English in comparison to Estonian is a very young
language. According to Wikipeia online dictionary, English is an
Anglo-Frisian language
brought to south-
eastern Great Britain in the
5th century AD by Germanic
settlers from various parts of northwest
Germany (
Saxons , Angles). Estonian in comparison is a language that
has been spoken in the area of present day Estonia for more
than 4000
years , Meri (1976).
First links
Although written
evidence of
regular links between Estonia and
England date
back only into the
beginning of the 20th
century, it is clear that there have been links also earlier.
These contacts might be very old.
During Hanseatic
times the trade on the
Baltic Sea was
quite active. The links might be even older.
Historians have
claimed that
already during the second Punic war in
218 BC a
northern nation called Esths controlled the
north
Kõik kommentaarid