EH 408/508: History of the English Language
This course aims to illustrate, as much as it can in a compressed format, the development of the English language from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present. We will be concerned with the whole history of the language, its phonological and morphological development, as well as its cultural, political, and economic impact. We will look significantly at literary and other social textual examples of English across time in order to see both how the language changes and how aware authors are of that change. We will discuss English as a cultural, economic, political, and religious force. We will see English as a language of the British Isles, as an American language, and as a global language.