ABSTRACT
Hundreds of millions of people use English every day nearly everywhere in the world; it is, for example, the main language of air-traffic control, international business and academic conferences, technology, diplomacy and sport. The result is the United States, by far the largest and most important predominantly English-speaking country. One part of what is Canada has been English-speaking since the seventeenth century, namely the British settlement colony of Newfoundland whose traditional dialect has Irish, Scots and West Country features, a distinct flavour of its own. British trading and colonialism also brought English to trading and exploitation colonies. By 1800, English was well-established in West Africa and in trading colonies in other parts of the world. During the nineteenth century, India and many territories in Africa and South-east Asia became exploitation colonies, and government, business, and missionary activity spread knowledge of English. Most users of English in the British Isles, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica and Barbados.
