Languages of the World KENAX Translation Services AFRICA  |  EURO-ASIA  |  MIDDLE ASIA  |  AUSTRALIA  |  NORTH AMERICA  |  SOUTH and CENTRAL AMERICA  English The history of English is conventionally, if perhaps too neatly, divided into three periods usually called Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Middle English, and Modern English. The earliest period begins with the migration of certain Germanic tribes from the continent to Britain in the fifth century A. D., though no records of their language survive from before the seventh century, and it continues until the end of the eleventh century or a bit later. By that time Latin, Old Norse (the language of the Viking invaders), and especially the Anglo-Norman French of the dominant class after the Norman Conquest in 1066 had begun to have a substantial impact on the lexicon, and the well-developed inflectional system that typifies the grammar of Old English had begun to break down. The period of Middle English extends roughly from the twelfth century through the fifteenth. The influence of French (and Latin, often by way of French) upon the lexicon continued throughout this period, the loss of some inflections and the reduction of others (often to a final unstressed vowel spelled -e) accelerated, and many changes took place within the phonological and grammatical systems of the language. The period of Modern English extends from the sixteenth century to our own day.  Haitian-Creole  (New York,Canada) Haitian Creole is spoken by about 5.7 million speakers in Haiti with over a 100,000 in the adjacent Dominican Republic and 200,000 in New York, and much smaller numbers in Canada and Puerto Rico. Haitian Creole is a French-based creole. It is a language that developed out the sociohistorical situation of seventeenth and eighteenth century Haiti, where a pidginized variety of French was used as a contact language between masters and slaves and among Africans of diverse ethnic origins in the plantation economy of the time. There are considerable morphological and syntactic influences from West African languages which were spoken by the overwhelming majority of slaves in Haiti, but the basic lexical structure of the language is French in origin.  Hawaiian The language spoken in Hawaii. The early Polynesians had an early form of written language prior to Western contact that was often inscribed on stone, carved on wood, etched in sandstone, or drawn on kapa (tapa cloth).  Icelandic The language spoken in Iceland.  Taishanese  (Canada) The majority of the [Canadian] immigrants came from the two southern coastal provinces of Guangdong , particularly the four adjacent counties of Xinhui, Taisan, Kaiping, and Enping - collectively known as Siyi, and Fujian. The similar dialect spoken by these Siyi people are commonly referred to as Taishanese. It became the defacto Chinese language in North America up to and until the early 1970's Since then Hong Kong has become the primary source of Chinese immigrants and Cantonese is now the most commonly spoken dialect in the communities. KENAX Translation Services