English is the native language of about two hundred million people. Chinese is the native language of about four hundred million people. Yet English is by far the most important language in the world today.

This is because it is spoken in more different parts of the world than any other language, it is the language of commerce; and it is the second language of many countries.

The English language is about five hundred years old. Like most of the languages of Europe, it can be traced back to a language described as Indo-European. This language was spoken about five thousand years ago on the steppes of southern Russia, probably by wandering tribes between the Rhine River and the Aral Sea.

Before recorded history, the people who spoke this ancient language had dispersed and their language had been broken up into different dialects. One of these dialects, known as Primitive Germanic, or Teutonic, began to split up into other dialects about the beginning of the Christian Era. It split up into two basic dialects: East Germanic, and West Germanic. The West Germanic dialect split up again into two dialects, High German and Low German.

From the High German came the modern German language. From the Low German came Dutch and English. English, however, was derived from Low German after many, many changes and developments over the years.

What first developed from Low German in the direction of the English language was a dialect called Old English or Anglo-Saxon. It was introduced into Britain during the Anglo-Saxon conquest, which took place about the year 449. Of course, when Anglo-Saxon began to be mixed with the native language that the conquerors found (probably Celtic), a new language began to develop. This language, as it was spoken until about 1150, is called Old English. From 1150 to 1500, the language is called Middle English, and from the year 1500 onward came the language we know as Modern English.