Four ways to look at…

The English

language

I get it! That’s why we read

those four essays!

1. How did English come to England?

English

The F

irst

1000

Ye

ars

I always wondered why the English

don’t speak Norwegian…

They don’t?

2. What do we know about how language started in the first place?

English

The

Dawn of

Language

Me Neanderthal…me speak…grunting?

Rrrr…rrrr…Me Cro-Magnon.

Fancy larynx. Jealous much?

3. How are words made?W

here

Wor

ds

Com

e

From

I know! Words are adopted, created by error, just made up, changed by doing nothing, by adding

or subtracting…

How does she KNOW

that???

4. English is one language, so how can it be so different from place to place?

Varieties of

English

Ay matey…I speak

‘Stralian…

Dude…no you don’t.

Look what I know about English now!

Where will we go from here?

Our first piece of literary text will be Beowulf, an epic poem originally written in Old English.