into what language family does english fall?
West Germanic languages
neutral
 The nature of an overall system for English was controversial : the analysis in Trager & Smith ( 1951 ) was popular amongst American linguists for a time ( in the face of criticism , particularly from Hans Kurath ) ; James Sledd put forth his own diaphonemic system that accommodated Southern American English ; both Troike ( 1971 ) and Reed ( 1972 ) modified the scheme of The Sound Pattern of English by focusing on the diaphoneme , believing that it could address neutralizations better than structuralist approaches ; and The Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States ( PEAS ) by Kurath and McDavid combined several dialects into one system transcribed in the IPA . More recently , The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language makes use of a diaphonemic transcription of Standard English so that examples can be expressed concisely without favoring any particular accent . 

contradiction
 English language learning and teaching is an important economic activity , and includes language schooling , tourism spending , and publishing . There is no legislation mandating an official language for England , but English is the only language used for official business . Despite the country 's relatively small size , there are many distinct regional accents , and individuals with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood everywhere in the country . 

neutral
 English word order has moved from the Germanic verb @-@ second ( V2 ) word order to being almost exclusively subject – verb – object ( SVO ) . The combination of SVO order and use of auxiliary verbs often creates clusters of two or more verbs at the centre of the sentence , such as he had hoped to try to open it . 

contradiction
 Decades , and in some cases centuries , of British rule and emigration have left their mark on the independent nations that arose from the British Empire . The empire established the use of English in regions around the world . Today it is the primary language of up to 400 million people and is spoken by about one and a half billion as a first , second or foreign language . 

neutral
 Despite downplaying the divergences , Kurath argued that there is no " total pattern " ( a term from Trager & Smith ( 1951 ) ) that can be imposed on all English dialects , nor of even American ones : 
