The History of English in Ten Minutes

I have just come across these interesting videos by the Open University: 10 videos of about 1 minute each which tell the history of the English language as it unfolded over the centuries.

Of course it’s not an in-depth treatment of this fascinating matter, but it is certainly a neat way to introduce it.

This is the first video, Anglo-Saxon – The History of English (1/10):

The other ones can be found here:

The Norman Conquest – The History of English (2/10)

Shakespeare – The History of English (3/10)

The King James Bible – The History of English (4/10)

The English of Science – The History of English (5/10)

English and Empire – The History of English (6/10)

The Age of the Dictionary – The History of English (7/10)

American English – The History of English (8/10)

Internet English – The History of English (9/10)

Global English – The History of English (10/10)

If you are looking for something along the same lines to read while on vacation, The Stories of English by David Crystal is an interesting read.

Can “ish” be used as a free word? Well… ish…

I have just read a really interesting discussion about the degrammaticalization of the morpheme -ish (as in red >> reddish).

The question is whether ish can be considered as a “liberated word form” or if it can only be used on its own when the word it should be attached to can be easily recovered in the context as in:

Is he rich?
Ish.

In the example above, of course, it means “richish”. But what about this example:

Can I punch anyone on earth?
Yes, ish.

Is ish referring to anyone or to the entire speech act? You can read the entire discussion here. I agree with those who claim that in this case ish has scope over the entire speech act. It should be interpreted to mean “sort of” and therefore it is used as a free word form to mitigate the illocutionary effect. Any other examples?

Language Diversity in the USA

Language Diversity in the USA is a very interesting book published by Cambridge University Press (the American edition is available here). It deals with the controversial issue of ethnolinguistic diversity in the States. The author, Kim Potowski, tackles the matter starting from common statements such as:

“You’re in America, speak English. It’s our official language.” “Today’s immigrants are not learning English as quickly as those of the past.” “Multilingualism threatens our national unity.”

The author defines these statements “myths” and profiles the top 12 minority languages in the USA (Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, French, Vietnamese, German, Korean, Russian, Italian, Arabic, Portuguese, Polish), with an additional chapter about Native American languages. She discusses the features of each language and concludes every chapter with a prediction about the future longevity of each one of them.

Overall, the book allays possible fears that either English or American national identity should be threatened by language diversity, which the author sees as a resource for the US.

An argument along the same lines was made by David Crystal in his English as a Global Language (here is the Italian edition – L’inglese come lingua globale).

Changing Pronounciation

An interesting article about the changing pronunciation of some words in British English: “The Pronunciation of Controversy“.

The interesting fact is that, while most changes are due to the influence of American English on British English, in some cases such as the one at issue, the change has nothing to do with the American standard and appears to be an “internal British affair”.

Apparently, there is some debate about whether English spelling needs to be simplified: “Unthinkable? Simpler spelling” and a reply: “These variations on English spellings simply won’t work“.

Wasn’t it already complicated enough?!

Pain in the English… and other blogs I love

I am a blog addict. I read blogs about all sorts of things. Of course I have a selection of language-related blogs that I follow regularly.

Berlusconi’s rhetoric and other rants

Yesterday I happened to read a very interesting “language-related” article about Berlusconi’s unique use of words. The journalist pointed out that the Prime Minister uses a mix of old-fashioned, slightly unusual words, such as postribolo or turpe, next to colloquialisms and more or less vulgar terms like coglione or casino. This is a very distinct feature of Silvio Berlusconi’s rhetoric. Here is the link to the article (in Italian).

And more on ranting, an amusing article about… synonyms! My classic snowclone rant.

SSWL – Syntactic Structures of the World's Languages

I’ve just come across a very interesting website and resource for linguists called Syntactic Structures of the World’s Languages. It allows you to search for the syntactic structures that are part of a specific language system and to compare languages.

Assemblea a Rebeldia – Pisa

Martedi 21 ottobre alle 21:00 a Rebeldia (via Cesare Battisti 51, Pisa) si terrà una assemblea sulla 133 e mobilitazione di Scuola e Università. Datene massima diffusione all’interno di ogni associazione/gruppo.

Il blog del nodo ricercatori precari di Pisa

Ecco il blog dei ricercatori precari di Pisa con informazioni sulle iniziative e la rassegna stampa.

Blog Rete Nazionale Ricercatori Precari – Nodo di Pisa

Opposizione pisana alla legge 133

Gremitissima oggi l’assemblea generale in Piazza dei Cavalieri per protestare contro la legge 133.

Corteo davanti al Rettorato dell'Università di Pisa

Gli effetti della legge 133saranno devastanti per l’università pubblica, e per tanti giovani come me che hanno investito impegno, tempo e speranze nella ricerca e nella didattica per pochi euro all’anno.

Pur non condividendo alcune delle preoccupazioni del movimento, ritengo comunque importante appoggiarlo e dare massima diffusione alle sue iniziative.

Ecco dunque il comunicato stampa con il sunto della mozioneassembleapisaottobre2008.