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A History Of The English Language (Modern Scholar) (2007)

by Michael D.C. Drout(Favorite Author)

4.29 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Recorded Books

review 1: This particular lecture series was a significant disappointment. Although the instructor said that an understanding of the development of language in general was going to enhance our understanding of the development of English, I got more of a sense that Modern Scholars said his information on English was too scanty and that he should increase it by about 50% by any means necessary – including a bunch of technical details on language that no self-respecting history major would really enjoy.Even when he got to the part that might be termed history, there was no story. There were a few flybys they gave insight into how particular words were developed. Some of them were interesting, but they did not provide enough moments to make the series worthwhile.
review 2:... more More interesting than it sounds and the first half is a pretty good introduction to linguistics in general. The second half is the specific history of English, and one of the more interested parts of that half was the dialectic analysis toward the end (including topics like the "pop" vs. "soda" debate). Prof. Drout mentions that modern U.K. dialects have evolved more rapidly since the 1700s than American Standard English, meaning Shakespeare probably had an accent closer to the ways some Americans speak than we what we now consider a refined English accent!If you're into the study of Language and you speak English then you will probably find this course pretty interesting in content and style. Drout is a fluid and fluent speaker (particularly important here) and he does a good job keeping energy up through technical material. less

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