1) How did English became the most popular or official language of so many countries? (particularly the US. And I'm especially wondering why was English preferred on other languages.)

2) How come so many words in modern English are derived from French (also old French) and Latin, and so few from Old and Middle English? (you can answer this separately) ...I'm asking this because it strike me as odd, that a modern form of a language would derive most of its words from other languages.

3) How and why did the Americans adopted their own accent? and how come there are so many variations of American accent?


Enlighten me oh folks of infinite linguistic wisdom!