L'anglais

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English is currently one of the most widely spoken and written languages worldwide, with some 380 million native speackers. Only Chinese and Hindi have more native speakers while Spanich is similar in number. English is also the most widely spoken of the Germanic language. It has lingua franca status in many parts of the world, due to the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British empire in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and that of the United States from the second world war to the present.

Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "global language". While English is not an official language in many countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. It is also, by international treaty, the official language for aircraft/airport and maritime communication, as well as being one of the official languages of both the European union and the United nation, and of most international athletic organizations, including the Olympic commitee.

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