English 3901: History of the English Language (Winter 2025)
About this course
Why don’t we spell knight n – i – t – e?
Where does ‘silent e’ come from?
Why is it book and books but not sheep and sheeps?
Do we say somebody is six foot or six feet tall?
All of us have asked questions like these about the English language. This course will help you learn how to find the answers. It covers the history of the English language from its pre-historic beginnings to its current position as the lingua franca (common language) of the modern world.
We begin with a brief survey of some important linguistic and methodological concepts. We then cover the major periods in the History of English paying particular attention to aspects that affect the way we now speak and write. In doing so we will cover the historical development of English sounds, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and rhetoric. We will also be looking at changes in the attitude of speakers of English towards their language’s position and importance in daily life.
The course is of general interest. It may be particularly useful for students considering further study in language art education, linguistics, medieval or classical languages and literature, or English history. No special training in or prior knowledge of linguistics, foreign languages, or grammar is required.
Contents
Learning goals
By the end of this course you should have an understanding of the principles of linguistic change, particularly as this applies to the English language. You should be able to recognise the major external and internal influences on the development of the English language, recognise the major periods in the development of the English language, and know how to research interesting forms and constructions using standard reference works.
Texts
The History of English is a standard course, taught in many departments of English and Linguistics around the world. There are, as a result, many different textbooks and introductions available, almost all of which cover the same basic material in slightly different ways.
This has several implications:
- The first is that “the textbook” will not be the sole (or even main) source of information in this course. I will also cover a lot of material, some found in one textbook, some found in another, in my lectures and class discussions. There are also several important handouts.
- Because the material is so widely disseminated, there are many excellent resources available online from instructors around the world. You should expect to use search engines and AI Chatbots to find and synthesis material. I expect you in this class to be an active reader.
- The third implications is that you can choose a combination of textbooks or introductions that work for you. Some introductions and textbooks are more linguistically oriented. Others are more cultural. Some are quite detailed. Others are very high-level. While this course will assume as its default the widely available (including for free from the internet archive) textbook The English language: A linguistic history (third edition), by Laurel J. Brinton and Leslie k. Arnovick, students can also use any of the number of different texts listed below.
Handouts
These are online resources I’ve developed that can help you in your studies.
- Essential Grammar Guide
- Grimm’s and Verner’s Law
- Old English Cheatsheet
- Some optional things
Default Textbook
The lectures and exercises in this course will assume a familiarity with the material in the following textbook (though the same information is available in almost all other textbooks on the market).
- Brinton, Laurel J. and Leslie K. Arnovick. 2017. The English language: A linguistic history (third edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Available at online booksellers and the internet archive). This is a standard textbook. It contains social, historical, and linguistic information about language change and the History of English from Proto-Indo-European to the present day. Also exercises.
Other textbooks
Other resources that contain information similar to that found in the default text, but presented in different ways and at various levels of detail include:
- Barber, Charles Laurence. 2000. The English Language : A Historical Introduction. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Available in print in our library, at online booksellers, and the internet archive). This is a more narrative/generalist History of English. It is lighter on the phonological and grammatical changes in the History of English, but a good read in terms of the social and historical elements.
- Baugh, Albert Croll, and Thomas Cable. 2002. A History of the English Language. Fifth Edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall. (Available in print and as an e-book in our library). This is a standard textbook for classes in the History of English, updated regularly since 1935. There are copies of the fifth edition available all over the internet. It also has an accompanying book of exercises that I use frequently for test and exam questions.
- Fennell, Barbara A. 2001. A History of English : A Sociolinguistic Approach. Oxford, UK ; Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers. This is a very good account of the History of English that takes a sociological approach. You can find full text on the internet.
- Gelderen, Elly van. 2006. A History of the English Language. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. An advanced, linguistically-focussed textbook.
- Gramley, Stephan. 2012. The History of English: An Introduction. London ; New York: Routledge. This is a textbook that is particularly good on the modern History of English (i.e. post Shakespeare and particularly Global English). You may be able to find a copy online.
- Hogg, Richard M., N. F. Blake, Roger Lass, Suzanne Romaine, R. W. Burchfield, and John Algeo. 2001. The Cambridge History of the English Language. Cambridge, New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press. (Available in our library, at online booksellers, and the internet archive). This is a standard six volume reference work intended to provide a background to questions in the History of English for researchers, teachers, and advanced students.
- Hogg, Richard Milne, and David Denison. 2006. A History of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. (Available as an e-book in our library). This is a collection of essays by experts on the History of English, though aimed at a general market.
- Lass, Roger. 1987. The Shape of English : Structure and History. Dent. (Available in print in our library). An advanced textbook that examines basic questions of evidence and definition.
- Mugglestone, Lynda, ed. 2006. The Oxford History of English. Oxford: Oxford university press. (Available online in our library, at online booksellers and the internet archive). This is a collection of essays by different authors on the standard topics in the History of English. An excellent resource for relatively recent expert opinion on various topics in the subject.
- Pyles, Thomas, and John Algeo. 1993. The Origins and Development of the English Language. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers. (Available in print in our library). A very standard textbook.
- Strang, Barbara M. H. 1989. A History of English. London: Methuen. (Available in print in our library). This is a very unique approach (and very informative): it looks at the History of English by moving backwards in fifty-year segments from “today” (i.e. 1970). It is quite linguistically focussed.
Evaluation
- Participation and Attendance 15% (Pass/Fail) [1]
- Attendance
- Quizzes
- Homework discussion leadership
- Formative Exercises 25% (Appropriate/Inappropriate/Fail) [2]
- Weekly Blog [3]
- First essay (5 pages)
- Two term tests
- Summative 45% (A+ through F)
- Research Essay (12-15 pages) 25% [4]
- Final Exam 20%
- Badges 15% [5]
- Distinction 1.5%
- Great Distinction 3%
- Resubmission -2.5%
Notes:
[1]. All exercises under this category are of equal weight. I reserve the right to add or subtract participation exercises during the year.
[2]. All exercises under this category are of equal weight. Exceptional work may be eligible for badges.
[3] Up to three blogs published in any one week may be counted for credit (though you are welcome to publish more than three). If you publish more than one blog, then the first one counts for 1 point and the second and third 1/2 point each (i.e. a maximum of 2 points in any one week). For the purposes of calculating grades, the week ends Tuesday night at Midnight (i.e. anything published after 00:00 on Wednesday belongs to the following week. Please look at the about blogs page to see my (liberal and easy-going) policies on what is required and acceptable in blogs
[4] Creative/alternative work will be accepted for the final written assignment only with prior permission of the instructor. Proposals for creative/alternative work will be considered the week before Reading Week. If you are considering a creative or alternative project for your final written assignment, please ensure you prepare a proposal and book an appointment to discuss it with Professor O’Donnell.
[5]. If any your work is exceptionally high quality it may be eligible also for Badges. Badges can be applied to any piece of work and always have the same value, regardless of the underlying value of the assignment (i.e. a “Great Distinction” badge is worth 3% of your final grade whether it is on your final essay or your first essay.
Mondays and Wednesdays
Students may submit one piece of “Inappropriate” work for regrading, provided they accompany this with a letter explaining what changes have been made to the resubmission. Students who resubmit work for grading will receive a 2.5% penalty on their final grade.
Policies
The following policies will be followed in all my classes unless otherwise announced. You are expected to be familiar with the policies reproduced here and in the more general section on my website. These additional web pages are to be considered part of this syllabus for the purposes of this course. Failure to conform to any of these policies may result in your grade being lowered.
Grade scale
The University of Lethbridge keeps track of student performance using a letter and grade point system (See section 4 of the University Calendar). Instructors assign students a letter grade at the end of each course (the University does not issue or record mid-term grades). These letter grades are converted to a numerical value (a Grade Point) for assessing overall academic performance (a Grade Point Average or GPA). The University does not record percentage-type grades and does not have a fixed scale for conversion from percentage scores to letter grades and grade points. Each instructor is responsible for determining their own methodology for determining students’ final letter grade.
In my classes, I use the following letter-grade to percentage correspondences:
| Excellent | Good | Satisfactory | Poor | Minimal pass | Failing | |||||||
| Letter | A+ | A | A- | B+ | B | B- | C+ | C | C- | D+ | D | F |
| Percent range | 100-94 | 93-90 | 89-86 | 85-82 | 81-78 | 77-74 | 73-70 | 69-66 | 65-62 | 61-58 | 57-50 | 49-0 |
| Conventional value | 100 | 92 | 88 | 84 | 80 | 76 | 72 | 68 | 64 | 60 | 56 | 49-0 |
| Grade point | 4.0 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 3.0 | 2.7 | 2.3 | 2.0 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0 | |
How your grade is determined depends on the type of work being assessed. Tests of specific skills or knowledge (such as identification questions in literature classes, or fact-oriented tests in my grammar and language classes) are usually assigned a numeric score which is easily converted to a percentage. Essays, presentations, and other performance-oriented tests are usually graded by letter. I convert letter grades to percentages by taking the median value in each grade-range, and rounding up to the nearest whole percent. The only exceptions are A+ (which is converted to 100%), and F (which is converted to an arbitrary percentage between 0% and 49% based on my estimation of the work’s quality). These scores can be found in the conventional value row of the above table.
In marking work I try to keep the University’s official description of these grades in mind (a description can be found in the University Calendar, Part IV.3.a). If you get an A it means your work is excellent; a B means your work is good; a C means it is satisfactory; a D that it is barely acceptable (minimal pass); and an F that it is failing to meet University-level standards.
I have prepared rubrics for most types of qualitative assignments (assignments that do not expect the student simply to provide a correct factual answer). These can be found in my Academic Policies section: http://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/Academic-Policies/
Submitting Work
Tests, Exams, and Quizzes
Tests and Exams will be written on Moodle. Quizzes may be presented on Moodle.
Essays, Reports, and Posters
Essays and reports will be collected on Moodle. Unless prior permission has been given, all essays, reports, and posters must be submitted in PDF format.
Plagiarism
This course uses plagiarism detection software. Any plagiarism will be treated very seriously: you can expect to receive a grade of 0 on the assignment as well as other penalties depending on the seriousness of the offence.
Class schedule
The following schedule is intended to help you plan your work for the semester. I reserve the right to make changes.
| Week | Date | Topic | Readings | Recommended Exercises1 | |
| 1 | 6/1 | Syllabus and Administrative Questions | |||
| 8/1 | Turn and Face the Strange: Recognising Historical Language Change |
|
|
||
| 2 | 13/1 | Elements 1: Basic Phonology |
|
|
|
| 15/1 | Elements 2: Basic Morphology and Syntax |
|
|
||
| 3 | 20/1 | Elements 3: Basic Semantics | Chapter 3: Causes and Mechanisms of Language Change |
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22/1 | Elements: Exercise/Review | ||||
| 4 | Test 1: Elements (27/1-2/2) | ||||
| 27/1 | Pre-History 1: “And none had lived before you!” Language Classification and the Comparative Method |
|
Exercise 4.3: Proto-Language and Reconstruction (pp. 108-109) | ||
| 29/1 | Pre-History 2: Proto-Indo-European |
|
|||
| 5 | 3/2 | Pre-History 3a: Germanic: morphology and syntax |
|
|
|
| 5/2 | Pre-History 3b: Germanic: phonology |
|
|
||
| 5/2 | Pre-History: Exercise/Review | ||||
| 6 | 10/2 | Old English 1: Anglo-Saxon Attitudes: An Overview of Anglo-Saxon History and Culture |
|
|
|
| 12/2 | Old English 2: Phonology, Sound Changes, and Semantics |
|
|
||
| Reading Week 15/2-21/2 (No classes) | |||||
| 7 | 24/2 | Old English 3: Old English Grammar |
|
|
|
| 26/2 | Old English: Exercise/Review | ||||
| 8 | Test 2: Pre-History and Old English (3/3-11/3) | ||||
| 3/3 | Middle English 1: “I don’t wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper!”: English after the Norman Invasion |
|
|
||
| 5/3 | Middle English 2: Phonology |
|
|
||
| 9 | 12/3 | Middle English 3: Grammar and the Perfect Storm |
|
|
|
| 14/3 | Middle English: Exercise/Review | ||||
| 10 | 19/3 | Early Modern English 1: The Rise of Standards, or Why you shouldn’t leave things up to the professors |
|
Exercise 10.4: Renaissance Respelling (pp. 324-325) |
|
| 21/3 | Early Modern English 2: Changes in Phonology and Grammar |
|
|
||
| 11 | 26/3 | Early Modern English 3: Borrowing and the Development of Modern English |
|
|
|
| 28/3 | Early Modern English: Exercise/Review | ||||
| 12 | 2/4 | Modern English: O Brave New World!: English as World Language |
|
|
|
| 5/4 | Modern English: Exercise/Review | ||||
| Final Exam Available 8/4-16/4 | |||||
1 This list is based on the default text and focuses on exercises that test your ability to apply material covered in the text as these are the most suitable for in-class review. Almost all of the textbooks listed above have similar exercises available, and these and the default textbook also contain exercises designed to test your knowledge of specific names, definitions, and periods or movements; knowledge of this factual information is less suitable for review in class, though students are expected to know it for tests, exams, and exercises.
