English 332: The History of the English Language
English 433: Modern Grammar
Dr. Russell A. Potter
A. Course Handouts
Exercise One: Practice Etymology
Old English text of The Dream of the Rood with rollover translation into modern English
Various authorities on the Vernacular (in .pdf format).
This includes the excerpt from Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe as well as my translations of Arundel's Constitutions and the Abbot of St. Albans's prohibition of English texts. Those familiar with Latin can read Arundel's original Constitutions here
Hear me read aloud from Chaucer's Preface to his Treatise on the Astrolabe
Thomas More's License to Own Heretical books, and Restrictions on reading the English Bible
Professor Tinkler's Page of Historical Samples of English Prose
Exercise Two (ENG 432 only): English Historical Prose (.pdf)
Exercise Three (ENG 433's Excercise Two): Sampling Language
Exercise Three (ENG 433 only): Shifting
NEW!!
Downloadable
Fonts for the International Phonetic Alphabet, for Macs and
PCs !
B. Phonetics -- From Medieval
to Modern
1.A great online resource for phonetics
2. The BBC has an excellent "Routes of English" site for regional varieties of UK English
2. A Chronology of Red Letter Dates in the History of English
3. An Old English site with sound samples & tutorial readings
4. A fine selection of Middle English texts can be found at the Luminarium
5. A good online site on the pronunciation of Chaucer's English
6. A good overview of the Great
Vowel Shift
C.Online Sound Samples
1. Eleanor Roosevelt -- "Over Coffee Cups" (1941)
2. Uncle Josh's Letter Home -- Cal Stewart (1909)
4. Edwin Booth reads from Othello in 1890!
5. American Memory Project - Sound Recordings (with spoken word)
6. Vaudeville Stage, 1913-1922: sound recordings from the Library of Congress
7. Sylvia Plath reads from "Daddy"
8. Dylan Thomas will not go Gently Into That Good Night
9. Robert Frost chooses the Road Less Taken
10. Poet laureate Rita Dove recites "Parsley"
12. Groucho Marx: These are the Breaks
13. 1950's DJ "Mad Daddy" gives an aircheck
14. George Bernard Shaw extols the virtues of the Soviet Union in 1931
15. Bill Clinton gives his 1999 State of the Union address
16. "Senator Claghorn": It's just a joke, son
18. William Jennings Bryan (1908)
19. Check out more such sounds at Earth Station One
NOTE: If you are
having difficulty playing these sound files, there are free
shareware programs which will make it
easy!
If you are using a Macintosh, go get SoundApp
If you are using
Windows, go get GoldWave
C. Links for discussion of
Black Vernacular English
1. John R. Rickman of Stanford University has an excellent page of resources and essays about BVE
2. An on-line bibliography of the "Ebonics" controversy
3. The hompage of the Oakland Unified School District
4. An Oakland teacher talks about Ebonics
5. An old sheet music cover showing the derogatory representations of Blackness and Black vernacular.
5. The Center for Applied Linguistics has an
excellent page of Ebonics
resources
D. Other Resources
1. A list of online slang dictionaries
2. An online lecture page on the movement of English from the British Isles to America and other places around the world
3. Here, for those in search of a broad range of resources, is what might well be the mother of all "History of the Language" pages.
4. Here is a good online account of the Dictionary of American Regional English -- you can even contribute to the upcoming volumes!
