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Learn incredible and insightful facts on the language we use everyday of our lives from Professor Seth Lerer of Stanford University. This course is designed to touch on every corner of the English language, from its distant origins to different dialects spoken today.
This course is designed to help you appreciate and understand why this language has evolved the way it did. You will learn why we speak the way we do today, how to properly use a dictionary, what the difference is between the three major periods of English, how famous authors apply the language as their most important tool in their writing, how to distinguish between dialects of the language that we use today in America, and much more.
Have you ever wondered where the silent ‘k’ and ‘g’ came from in the word ‘knight’, for example? Professor Lerer answers several commonly asked but rarely answered questions like these by filling you in on the language’s complex history that has evolved immensely over time. You’ll learn why people often categorize English as one of the most confusing to learn as a second language, since so many rules are broken in spelling and pronunciation.
You’ll get to hear dialects of the English language that have evolved over 1,500 years. Professor Lerer’s style of interactive and animated teaching have won him the Hoagland Prize for Undergraduate Teaching at Stanford University, where he is a Professor of Comparative Literature.
"Our goal here," says Professor Lerer, "is to understand the great impact that studying the history of English can have on our appreciation of social, cultural, literary, and linguistic change. With these lectures, the student can find the history of English embedded in the words we use, the literature we read, and the everyday lives we lead. We will learn about the past, but also see the making of our own present."
Enjoy these 36 lectures as Professor Lerer takes you through 1,500 years of history that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Anyone who speaks the English language is sure to appreciate the information that will prove useful for the rest of your life…whether it be understanding modern English’s spellings and pronunciations, or appreciating fine works of literature from Shakespeare and Caedmon.
(about 1080 minutes)
This video was added to our catalog on May 17, 2005 in Academic::Language and Academic::History.
Product availability: available now, ships immediately!
This is a fascinating window into our language, how it came to be, and why we speak and write it the way we do. I've rented the first two DVDs and plan to get the third. The first DVD lays down valuable ground rules about how to discuss language changes and discusses the Indo-European language families of which English is a part. In the second DVD Lerer (the lecturer) really comes into his own as he describes the many interesting shifts from old English to the changes occurring after the Norman invasion and into Chaucer's use of the language. This should come as no surprise since his specialty appears to be Chaucer. I'm looking forward to the next DVD and would recommend this to anyone who would like to have more than a passing familiarity with the history of English.
