1. Frisian – most similar language to English phonetically. Frisian (the Netherlands' 2nd official language) is phonetically the closest language to Modern English and is mutually intelligible with Olde English. This isn't surprising since the Anglo-Saxons and the Frisians had recent common ancestors.
What two languages are the most similar? Spanish and Portuguese are the most mutually understandable pair. In certain circumstances, television stations do not even translate between the two languages, presuming that Spanish-speaking viewers will understand Portuguese and vice versa.
English vocabulary comprises 29% French, 29% Latin, 26% Germanic, and 6% Greek.
Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon.
By linguist criteria English is more similar to German, both belong in the West Germanic languages and its vocabulary has been influenced by other Germanic languages as well.
Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.
“Lexical similarities” means how many words are identical (or nearly identical) between two languages. For Spanish and French, their lexical similarity is about 75%. In comparison, Spanish and English have a lexical similarity of only 30-50%, and French and English of only 40-50%.
Scientists at the University of Reading have discovered that 'I', 'we', 'who' and the numbers '1', '2' and '3' are amongst the oldest words, not only in English, but across all Indo-European languages.
Linguists use many factors, such as grammar, phonology, and vocabulary, to determine the historical ancestry of modern languages. The overall composition of English reveals strong Germanic roots. It's official: English is a proud member of the West Germanic language family!
English, having its major roots in Germanic languages, derives most of its grammar from Old English. As a result of the Norman Conquest, it has been heavily influenced, more than any other Germanic language, by French and Latin.
The English largely descend from two main historical population groups: the West Germanic tribes, including the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians who settled in Southern Britain following the withdrawal of the Romans, and the partially Romanised Celtic Britons who already lived there.
2. Mandarin (1,118 million speakers) Looking at total speakers, Mandarin is the second most widely spoken language in the world.
Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French.
Chamicuro. Chamicuro, also known as Chamicura or Chamicolo, is a traditional language in Peru. There are only two known speakers of the language today.
But, some people may end up getting the shorter end of the stick — they can sometimes only understand a language without actually being able to speak it — a phenomenon officially called receptive multilingualism.
The origins of the word 'sorry' can be traced to the Old English 'sarig' meaning “distressed, grieved or full of sorrow”, but of course, most British people use the word more casually.
A handshake is still the most common way to greet someone, especially if you are in a formal situation at work. Shaking hands is the most common greeting between men, between women, and between men and women.
The United States and India have the most total English speakers, with 306 million and 265 million, respectively. These are followed by Pakistan (104 million), the United Kingdom (68 million), and Nigeria (60 million). As of 2022, there were about 373 million native speakers of English.
The Netherlands has emerged as the nation with the highest English language proficiency, according to the EF English Proficiency Index, with a score of 72.
So, English is made of Old English, Danish, Norse, and French, and has been changed by Latin, Greek, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Dutch and Spanish, along with some words from other languages. English grammar has also changed, becoming simpler and less Germanic.