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How English Goes from an Uncultivated Tongue (an Ugly duckling) to a De’facto World Language( a Beautiful Swan) 【摘要】 英语属于印欧语系的日耳曼语族下的西日耳曼语支。在经历了古英语(450-1150年)、中古英语(1150-1450年)到现代英语(1450年以后)三个时期1500多年的演变与发展之后,现已成为一种国际性语言。本文紧扣“国际化”,疏通英语从古英语、中古英语到现代英语在使用范围以及词汇来源等方面所表现出的国际化发展历程。 【Abstract】 English belongs to West Germanic languages branch of Germanic languages group of Indo-European languages family. After being experienced through Old English, Middle English to Modern English of more than 1500 years’ evolution and development, now it becomes an international language. This thesis focuses on “Internationalization”, threads up the development of English from old period to modern. 【关键词】 英语国际化； 古英语； 中古英语； 现代英语； 英语文化； 【Key words】 English Internationalization； Old English； Middle English； Modern English； English Culture； English just was a branch of Germanic languages group of Indo-European languages family , how could English goes from ‘an Ugly duckling’ to ‘a Beautiful Swan’? 1. The Origin and background of English The history of English can be traced to the colonization of people from a family of languages which spread throughout Europe and southern Asia in the fourth millennium BC, (185). It is thought that a seminomadic population living in the steppe region to the north of the Black Sea moved west to Europe and east to Iran and India, spreading their culture and languages (186). According to The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, the European languages and Sanskrit, the oldest language of the Indian sub-continent, were tied to a common source. When a systematic resemblance was discovered in both roots and verbs and in grammar forms, by comparing similar features of the European languages and Sanskrit, a common source language was reconstructed named Proto-Indo-European (298). The Proto-Indo-European language is thought to have been spoken before 3,000 BC, and to have split up into different languages during the following millennium (298). The languages fam