In this seminar, students get an introduction to the history of English, i.e. Old English, Middle English and Early Modern English. This class includes weekly discussions and tasks. In the second half of the seminar, we continue to study the historical events, current status of major varieties and differences of world varieties from North America, Australia to Africa and Asia with a focus on their structural and phonological features. We will follow the debates about English as a cause of language death, and talk about the place of English in language policies and language planning.

In this course we will look at some key historical events that have impacted the historical development, standardisation, global expansion and diversification of the English language around the world. The course aims to help you to understand and explain how the linguistic development of the English language is related to events in the political and social history of the British Isles and beyond, and, as a future teacher, how apparent irregularities in Present-Day English which are, in many cases, remnants of earlier, regular patterns, can be explained historically. We will also examine the reasons for the the global expansion and diversification of English in various cultural contexts that has given rise to an enormous linguistic variation across English-speaking cultures around the world.


For an entertaining and insightful quick introduction see the series of short videos "The History of English in Ten Minutes" produced by the Open University: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA03075BAD88B909E

IIn this seminar, students get an introduction to the history of English, i.e. Old English, Middle English and Early Modern English. This class includes weekly discussions and tasks. In the second half of the seminar, we continue to study the historical events, current status of major varieties and differences of world varieties from North America, Australia to Africa and Asia with a focus on their structural and phonological features. We will follow the debates about English as a cause of language death, and talk about the place of English in language policies and language planning.

This is the second part of the foundation module. It provides an introduction to the history of the English language from Old English to Present-Day English, the spread and transplantation of English to other parts of the world as well as the subsequent diversification of the English language into World Englishes.