...... weak form
English as a World Language
Today, when English is one of the major languages in the world, it requires an
effort of the imagination to realize that this is a relatively recent thing. In
Shakespeare’s time, for example, only a few million people spoke English, and the
language was not thought to be very important by the other nations of Europe, and
was unknown to the rest of the world.
English has become a world language because of its establishment as a mother
tongue outside England, in all the continents of the world. This exporting of English
began in the seventeenth century, with the first settlements in North America. Above
all, it is the great growth of population in the United States, assisted by massive
immigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, that has given the English
language its present standing in the world.
...... primary stress, ??? possible primary stress
..... secondary stress (in compouncs/phrases)
English as a World Language
Today, when English is one??? of the major languages in the world, it requires an
effort of the imagination to realize that this is a relatively recent thing. In
Shakespeare’s time, for example, only a few million people spoke English, and the
language was not thought to be very??? important by the other nations of Europe,
and was unknown to the rest of the world.
English has become a world language because of its establishment as a mother
tongue outside England, in all the continents of the world. This exporting of English
began in the seventeenth century, with the first settlements in North America. Above
all, it is the great growth of population in the United States, assisted by massive
immigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, that has given the English
language its present standing in the world.