Sixteen centuries ago a wave of settlers from northern Europe came to the British Isles speaking a mix of Germanic dialects. Today we call that dialect Old English, the ancestor of the language nearly one in five people in the world speaks every day. How did this ancient tongue evolve into the elegant idiom of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and other great writers? And how does English continue develop today? The History of the English Language, 2nd Edition, is Professor Seth Lerer's revised and updated investigation of the remarkable history of English.
History of the English Language, 2nd Edition
Investigate the remarkable history of English, from the powerful prose of King Alfred in the Middle Ages to the modern-day sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr. with the Dean of Arts and Humanities at the University of California, San Diego.
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Thanuja from
Excellent course!
This is one of the best courses in Wondrium! If you are language enthisiast, linguistics enthusiast or English language learner or history buff, this is a great course to follow. Professor is extremely knowledgeable, skilled in presentation in academic discourse setting.
I'd recommend this course for any Wondrium newbie to start with as well. You will stay on this platform for sure!
Date published: 2024-02-01
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Hank555 from
I learned much from this course
This course was made easier by the excellent presentation style of Dr. Mater. This course was far more comprehensive and useful then I expected. Good and thanks.
Date published: 2023-12-16
Rated 5 out of
5
by
madJanetjd from
This course is a tour de force.
Every lecture reveals new facets and subtleties of topics I am somewhat familiar with. I love both the clarity of exposition and the clarity of speech. I also love his passionate engagement with the subject.
Date published: 2023-09-15
Rated 5 out of
5
by
ray03 from
A perfect recipe for learning
I have listened to dozens of Teaching Company courses over the years--mostly in the subject matter areas of literature, history and religion--and find this particular course to be among the best. This is in no small part because the course has multiple focuses, both historical (the evolution and development of the English language over time) and literary (language use, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc., as reflected in and through specific works of literature). Professor Lerer does an extraordinary job of unfolding and presenting the material in an engaging and thought-provoking manner and in a way calculated to lead to an understanding and retention of key points. Each lecture carefully builds upon and reinforces previous lectures. Professor Lerer's readings from select works in the Old and Middle English brings the subject matter to life. Finally, the Course Guidebook is excellent. Bottom line: Fascinating subject matter expertly presented through stimulating lectures reinforced by excellent written materials. A perfect recipe for learning.
Date published: 2023-06-05
Rated 1 out of
5
by
Barry001 from
What should have been an interesting blend of history and linguistics was a painfully boring few hours of verbal diarrhea only the author could enjoy. Unfortunate...
Date published: 2023-05-19
Rated 4 out of
5
by
TTC fan from
Concentration required
I found myself wishing that Dr. Lerer had been allotted 48 lectures instead of 36 for this survey course, to allow him to devote more time to Old and Middle English, particularly Chaucer and Shakespeare. For this reason, I read Lerer's recommended textbook "A History of the English Language" by Baugh & Cable concurrently with his lectures, to get more detail. I found Lerer's last six lectures to be the most absorbing, and his summation in the final lecture is excellent. However, there are problems with Dr. Lerer's delivery that make listening to him somewhat tedious. He repeats certain pet phrases such as "if you like," "in other words," and "the way in which" over and over again (why not just say "how"?). Also, he has a habit of enunciating each word individually, which impedes the flow of his delivery and makes him sound pedantic. In spite of these difficulties, I recommend this course for its comprehensiveness and Dr. Lerer's passion for his subject. He includes a handy timeline, glossary, and useful basic bibliography of further reading in the course guidebook. I intend to use his bibliography to further my study of the history of English.
Date published: 2023-01-10
Rated 5 out of
5
by
BritinUS from
Good course
Good coverage of material. Instructor was knowledgeable and had good presentation skills. Personally I would have liked more emphasis on Old and Middle English, but the course was informative and enjoyable.
Date published: 2022-07-25
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Pavalah from
Enjoyable
It looks, from a few other reviews I've glanced at, as if this lecturer isn't to everyone's taste. That said, I really enjoyed him! He is clearly knowledgeable and cares deeply about his topic. I'm happy to have taken the time to go through his course.
Date published: 2022-02-14
Overview
About
Dr. Seth Lerer is the Dean of Arts and Humanities at the University of California, San Diego. Before taking this position, he was the Avalon Foundation Professor in Humanities and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Stanford University. He also taught at Princeton University, Cambridge University, and Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Lerer earned his B.A. from Wesleyan University, a second B.A. from Oxford University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Professor Lerer's research interests include medieval and Renaissance studies, early Tudor literary culture, textual criticism, Old and Middle English literature, and children's literature. He has published 10 books, including Chaucer and His Readers and Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language. Professor Lerer won the 2010 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism in Memory of Newton Arvin for his book Children's Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter. The book also won the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award. He is also the author of more than 100 scholarly articles and reviews. Professor Lerer received many awards for his scholarship and teaching, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation, the Beatrice White Prize of the English Association of Great Britain (for Chaucer and His Readers), and the Hoagland Prize for Undergraduate Teaching at Stanford.
01: Introduction to the Study of Language
Relationships between spelling, pronunciation, grammar, and style are all ones we may have asked since grade school. This lecture surveys the content and approaches of the course as a whole by framing these questions historically....
32 min
02: The Historical Study of Language
Our study of English can be informed by our own experience of language-and by our reading. This lecture presents some technical ways of studying language historically. Since the primary goal of the course is to construct a historical narrative, you'll begin with origins and end with the future....
30 min
03: Indo-European and the Prehistory of English
Who were the Indo-European speakers? What language did they speak? And why should we study it? Discover the answer to these and similar questions in this lecture, which reveals how Indo-European languages can help us understand the historical study of language in general-as well as some particular aspects of English in greater detail....
28 min
04: Reconstructing Meaning and Sound
Examine the ways in which historical linguists classify languages, study their particular history, and trace relationships of sound and sense. Professor Lerer focuses on the Indo-European languages and looks closely at one of the most important relationships of sound among them: Grimm's Law....
30 min
05: Historical Linguistics and Studying Culture
Here, investigate the ways in which we may reconstruct sounds and meanings of the older Indo-European languages. In the process, you'll learn about the shared cultural and historical contexts from which the Germanic languages-and ultimately English-emerged....
30 min
06: The Beginnings of English
Delve into the linguistic relationships of Old English to its earlier German matrix. Look at key vocabulary terms-many of which are still in our own language-to trace patterns of migration, social contact, and intellectual change. Also, learn how Old English was written down and how it can help us reconstruct the worldview of the Anglo-Saxon peoples....
30 min
07: The Old English Worldview
The focus of this lecture is the loan words that came into the Germanic languages during the continental and insular periods of borrowing. You'll also see how the first known poet in English, Caedmon, used the resources of his vocabulary and his literary inheritance to give vernacular expression to new Christian concepts....
30 min
08: Did the Normans Really Conquer English?
Witness language change in action as English shifts from an inflected to a relatively uninflected language, and as word order takes precedence over case endings and the determiner of meaning. Also, consider how a language builds and forms its vocabulary through building new words out of old ones, or by borrowing them....
30 min
09: What Did the Normans Do to English?
In this fascinating lecture, Professor Lerer looks closely at the changes wrought by the French in English during the 11th to the 14th centuries. In the process, he raises questions about what we might call the "sociology" of language change and contact....
30 min
10: Chaucer's English
This lecture presents the central features of Chaucer's English. Its goal is not only to address a particular period in the history of the language (or even in the history of literature) but to allow you to recognize and appreciate the force of Chaucer's poetry and its indelible impact on English linguistic and literary history....
30 min
11: Dialect Representations in Middle English
Learn about some of the major differences in Middle English speech and writing. The goals of this lecture are threefold: to look at some of the linguistic features of the dialects themselves; to illustrate some of the recent methodologies of dialect study; and to appreciate the literary presentation of dialects in Middle English poetry and drama....
30 min
12: Medieval Attitudes toward Language
Here, unpack some attitudes toward language change and variation during the Middle Ages in an effort to understand how writers of the past confronted many of the problems regarding social status and language. Many of these problems, you'll discover, are similar to those we still deal with today....
30 min
13: The Return of English as a Standard
This lecture surveys the history of English from the late 14th to the early 16th centuries to illustrate the ways in which political and social attitudes returned English to the status of the prestige vernacular (over French). In addition, you'll look at institutions influential in this shift, examine attitudes toward the status of English in relationship to French, and more....
31 min
14: The Great Vowel Shift and Modern English
Professor Lerer details the major features of the Great Vowel Shift, a systematic change in the pronunciation of long, stressed vowels in English. It's a shift that took place from around the middle of the 15th century and radically changed the sound of spoken English-making its vowels unique in pronunciation among European languages....
30 min
15: The Expanding English Vocabulary
Between 1500 and 1700, the vocabulary of English changed dramatically. How was this increase in lexical material organized? How did words-both new and old-change in meaning? How did the phenomenon of polysemy (the multiple meanings of words) affect English writing? Find out the answers here....
30 min
16: Early Modern English Syntax and Grammar
Trace the specifics of syntax and grammar in the period of early modern English to show how, in many ways, the shape of modern English depends on some very small elements. Also, look at changes in the system of modal (or helping) verbs, as well as the second- and third-person pronouns....
29 min
17: Renaissance Attitudes toward Teaching English
Now, turn to 16th- and 17th-century developments to define the nature of English at this time and to discern contemporary attitudes toward that nature. Focus on the role of education, regionalism, and nationalism in the debate about standard English during this vital period....
31 min
18: Shakespeare-Drama, Grammar, Pronunciation
William Shakespeare undoubtedly stands on the cusp of language change. In the first of two lectures devoted to the language of this iconic Western author, use a short selection from the play Richard III that raises important questions about pronunciation and grammatical usage during the Bard's time....
30 min
19: Shakespeare-Poetry, Sound, Sense
Continue your examination of Shakespeare by looking at some texts that illustrate the verbal resources of the playwright's language and the changing nature of the English literary vocabulary. Also, glimpse some texts that actually challenge our assumptions about the language-and about Shakespeare's work itself....
31 min
20: The Bible in English
Explore the history of biblical translation by examining closely Matthew 17:13¬-15 from four representative texts: the Old English version from the 10th century; the translation made under the supervision of John Wycliffe in the 1380s; the translation published by William Tyndale in 1526; and the King James version published in 1611....
30 min
21: Samuel Johnson and His Dictionary
In this lecture, learn about the rise of lexicography in the 17th and 18th centuries, with a special focus on the great Dictionary of Samuel Johnson from 1755. This dictionary stands as the culmination of nearly a century of responses to the growth and change in the English vocabulary....
31 min
22: New Standards in English
Lexicography and the success of Johnson's Dictionary fed into the larger debate about how language should be studied and taught. Here, meet several influential writers from the late 18th century who crystallized this debate. Also, look at several words that reflect the larger cultural problem of linguistic usage and social behavior....
30 min
23: Dictionaries and Word Histories
This lecture looks at some key words to illustrate the ways in which words change meaning. It then turns to another set of words to illustrate the politics of lexicography and the judgmentalism of the modern dictionary....
32 min
24: Values, Words, and Modernity
How do we bear the legacy of earlier approaches to the study and teaching of English? In dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary, handbooks like Fowler's Modern English Usage, and contemporary debates on language usage, we may see the same terms and problems as we saw in the age of Samuel Johnson....
32 min
25: The Beginnings of American English
American English begins with the initial patterns of settlement in the early 17th century. Look at the nature of those settlements, the historical contexts of 17th- and 18th-century colonization, the origins of dialect boundaries based in these early settlements, the distinct features of early American English, and much more....
32 min
26: American Language from Webster to Mencken
Professor Lerer discusses the development of the American language throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Two important figures stand at the poles of this story: Noah Webster and H. L. Mencken-each of whom set the tone for the ways in which the American language was viewed and written about during their respective periods....
31 min
27: American Rhetoric from Jefferson to Lincoln
The study of rhetoric in 18th- and 19th-century America had a profound effect on how people spoke and wrote, as well as how literary and public language developed. In this lecture, examine attitudes toward language and power in the political and literary arenas, with choice examples taken from figures such as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln....
31 min
28: The Language of the American Self
Learn how works like Frederick Douglass's autobiography and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick demonstrate how the study of the history of the language contributes to the making of unique voices of the American social experience. This was especially important as mid-19th-century America saw the rise of the profession of public authorship....
30 min
29: American Regionalism
By the middle of the 19th century, it had become clear that American English was not a unified form of speech and writing but rather a combination of regional dialects. Here, explore the history of the idea of regional American English, then move to some modern linguistic approaches to how regionalism is studied....
30 min
30: American Dialects in Literature
Take a closer look at several examples of how literary writers in the 19th and 20th centuries represent American dialects. In the process, you'll discern the specific features of regional dialects and confront larger issues about how regionalism works in American speech and society....
31 min
31: The Impact of African-American English
This lecture takes you deep inside some of the key features of the impact of the speech of African Americans on the American language. The purpose of this lecture is to present African American English as a language with grammatical rules and a rich and vital literature....
33 min
32: An Anglophone World
In many ways, the central feature of 21st-century English is its status as a world language. Investigate some distinctive features of the language outside of Great Britain and America, noting key features of pronunciation and vocabulary, as well as examples from the distinctive literature of post-colonial English....
32 min
33: The Language of Science
The rise of experimental science in the 20th century has not only given English a wealth of new words, but it has changed the ways in which we coin and borrow words. What are the key methods for coining new words in technical fields? How has scientific and technical language become a part of our literary-and everyday-expression?...
32 min
34: The Science of Language
Professor Lerer reveals some major developments in language study in the early 20th century. Encounter some major figures in American linguistics to learn how the study of language came to be associated with the study of mind, consciousness, and social organization....
30 min
35: Linguistics and Politics in Language Study
Get a compelling introduction to Noam Chomsky, the founder of modern linguistics, and to the social, cognitive, and philosophical implications of his work. The legacy of Chomskyan linguistics, you'll discover, goes far beyond the technical terms of the discipline to embrace a politics of language study itself....
30 min
36: Conclusions and Provocations
Conclude the course by reviewing the major themes and approaches you've covered and bringing together some of the details of the historical sweep of the preceding lectures. As Professor Lerer stresses, to know the history of our language is to know ourselves....
30 min
