Monday 8 October 2018

History of the English Language in 10'




This animated history of the English language covers 1600 years of linguistic history in just 11 minutes and 20 seconds. It starts in the fifth century AD with the Angles and the Saxons and goes right on through to the present and beyond.
You will learn the origin of phrases such as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, the significance of Shakespeare’s plays on the English vocabulary, why one idea can be conveyed with two different words, which words are of Anglo-Saxon or Germanic origin, why faucet and tap,toilet and restroom,...
The video was created by The Open University, OU,a distance learning school out of the UK and its producers claim : “the series looks at how English grew from a small tongue into a major global language before reflecting on the future of English in the 21st century.”
Check out the video by clicking on the link below:


Watch the video and then write a short summary explaining how English has evolved by being in contact with other languages. Add examples taken from the videos to support your views.