2023-2024 Academic Catalog

Jul 31, 2025

2023-2024 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

ENG 354 - History of the English Language

English language and culture share a 1500-year history of interaction and mutual influence. We will begin this course with some of the basic concepts of language and language change, including semantics (how words mean), syntax (sentence structure), phonology (where sounds come from and how they are made), orthography (the bizarre English spelling system and how it came to be), and morphology (how words are put together). From there we will move to the prehistory of English, including the Indo-European language family and where English fits into it. Then we will work chronologically, moving through Old English (before 1100), Middle English (12^th-15^th centuries), Early Modern English (16^th-18^th centuries), and Modern English (18^th century-present). We will look at issues of language use, such as the notion of linguistic correctness, the construction of “standard” and “non-standard” English, “literary” language, simplified or plain language, spelling reform, pidgins and creoles, the increasing hegemony of English on a world scale, and the important variations of English around the world. Along the way, we will read historical events such as invasions, political and intellectual revolutions, immigration, emigration and cultural assimilation as shaping forces in the living entity of the language. No previous background in early English is required, and there will be enough language instruction to allow you to delight in the difference of more youthful Englishes.

Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually or biannually