Location:
Meeting time: M W 12-1 pm
Location TBA
Exam group: 5
Catalog number: 1987

Everyone who uses English has reason to wonder about its idiosyncrasies. How can words with such variant spellings as "eight" and "ate" be pronounced alike? Why do we say "a twenty foot" pole, rather than "twenty feet"?-- and why is it "feet" rather than "foots"? Where do dialects come from? Who decides whether a split infinitive is correct or not? What did Shakespeare's spoken language sound like? Why does English lack certain features other languages have, such as grammatical gender, inflected adjectives, and variable word order? What happened to "thou"? Is English destined to become the dominant language in the world?

This course addresses such questions in one way or another as it surveys the changes across the centuries. Sections will go over exercises from the website and offer more opportunity for discussion. Besides addressing everyone's curiosity about the features of the language, this course can help students understand the literature of earlier periods and can give greater confidence in reading and writing. It argues, finally, that English is not the property of anyone or any group, but belongs instead to any and all of us who use it today.