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There are approximately 6000 languages in the world. They are grouped into language families and the English language belongs to the biggest language family which is Indo-European. The closest siblings are German, French etc. Among them English is the most widely spoken language in the world. Its history and statistics show the reasons why it is a global language. However, the features of this language are also worth studying. Since a language consists of components, in this essay we will look into them one by one, although we will not be able to mention about all of them here. The first peculiarity of English is its phoneme. Consonants are classified according to the place and manner of classification and vowels according to the place of lips and tongue. The table of this classification can be found on internet. The phonemes in English make the language special. For example, /t/ phoneme in English has two allophones depending whether it comes in the beginning or in the end of a word. [t] allophone in tap sounds slightly differently than [t] allophone in pat. [t] in tap is pronounced with more puff of air and this phoneme is alveolar. This sound does not exist in Russian or Kyrgyz. There are sounds such as / ᵆ / in cat, / ᶱ / in think, / ᶞ / in the which are also peculiar in English. The second one is its spelling. The way words are spelled and the way how they are pronounced in different ways. This is probably the most difficult one for language learners. Here are some examples. The letters ou in words tough, dough, through, ouch are pronounced differently. Words tear as a noun sounds differently than tear as a verb. EA letters in beard, heart, and heard are pronounced in different ways. There are number of examples like this. We can also look through phonological rules in English: assimilation, dissimilation, insertion, deletion in order to understand this better. Another feature is the way how words are formed. Some words change their functions depending on prefixes and suffixes. When prefixes are added the meaning changes and when suffixes are added functions change. For example prefix anti, un, im, il, ir give negative meanings to a word. When a word realize is a verbs, with a suffix –tion, it becomes a noun. There a number of these addings in English. Some words do not add anything but still depending on a usage, their functions change anyway. For example, bed is a noun, but in some texts it is used as a verb. Stress also plays a role on functions of words. When the first syllable in transport is stressed, it is a noun, when the second is one stressed it becomes a verb. The meaning does not change though. Some examples are import, export, improve, increase etc. In syntactic level, the English language has some differences as well. According to typological classification, it belongs to SVO group. This means subject comes first. And in modern English case endings do not exist except for some helping words such as prepositions. Apparently, perhaps English is the only language which has both fusional and isolating characteristics. In conclusion, as any language, English has its own peculiarities. They can be studied in a sound, word, and sentence level. There are a number sources where examples for these features can be found. Because those features may not exist in other languages, it may be difficult for English learners to get this concept.
