A History of the English Language

by Michael D. C. Drout

Professor Drout addresses the foundation of language and its connection to specific portions of the brain. The components of language are explained in easy-to-understand terms and the progression of the language from Germanic to Old, Middle, and Modern English is fully illustrated—including such revolutionary language upheavals as those brought about by the Norman Conquest and the Great Vowel Shift. One of the most interesting aspects of the English language lies in its variants, such as the “soda” vs. “pop” debate and the place of African-American English in modern culture. These and other dialectual curiosities are looked at in detail and placed in the context of today’s world. Finally, Professor Drout examines the future not only of the English language, but of all the world’s languages.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Language, Audiobook, Linguistics, Literature, Historical

9 pages, Audible Audio

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Leftbanker · Rating 5 out of 5]

My high regard for this course is mostly due to my fascination for the subject matter. There wasn’t a lot of new material here for me but it was a good review/overview of the subject. I could probably teach this course by now. I don’t know if I would recommend this to anyone unless they just love learning about the mysteries of English and how we arrived at where we are today.

Non-native speakers are always asking me why English is such a disastrously difficult language to learn. This course helps me form my answer.

I especially enjoyed the chapters on linguistics at the beginning, although I can understand how people without much knowledge in this area could find it tedious.

[Brian Eshleman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This particular lecture series was a significant disappointment. Although the instructor said that an understanding of the development of language in general was going to enhance our understanding of the development of English, I got more of a sense that Modern Scholars said his information on English was too scanty and that he should increase it by about 50% by any means necessary – including a bunch of technical details on language that no self-respecting history major would really enjoy.

Even when he got to the part that might be termed history, there was no story. There were a few flybys they gave insight into how particular words were developed. Some of them were interesting, but they did not provide enough moments to make the series worthwhile.

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is pretty amazing. Drout begins with the hardwired origin of language to humans as a species, tells us about the sounds of language, about meaning, grammar, and other theoretical linguistic material.

During the first half I kept thinking, 'You are going to have some History of the English Language in your History of the English Language, right? Eventually, during the second half, he does get to the History of the English Language. And he does pull it all together with more depth than what I expected of the lectures.

This, with the rest of Drout's Modern Scholar lectures, combined, produce a stunning education about English and its usage. I give this a 5-star rating, literally using Goodreads' own definition of the 5-star rating. Strongly recommended.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half is slow, but it sets up everything to follow as to how the English Language evolved. The last half of the lecture series pushed all my philological etymology buttons, walking us through the changes from Proto-Indo-European to Olde English to Middle English to Modern English. Lecture 13 follows regional variations in accents as well as names and phrases (the simplest of which is Soda vs. Pop vs. Coke). All this culminates in the thesis statement of how the common perception of disparaged dialects (like Black English) is no different than the attitudes in Pygmalion (aka My Fair Lady). The thirteen lectures up front were illuminating, but the final was eye-opening in showing how the disparaged dialects follow the same transformational rules as when Middle English converted to Modern English. Great stuff and I will likely revisit the second half again in the future.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still just as entertaining and enlightening as the first time I listened to these lectures.

[S. Garland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a linguistics nerd, so this was basically and echo chamber of stuff I already like.

[Peter Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Modern Scholar: The History of the English Language by Professor Michael Drout


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This is a very enjoyable lecture series.

The first half of the lectures deal with linguistics. Professor Drout educates students in the history of linguistics as a field. He then takes the student through the mechanics of language from brain activity to sound formation to phonemes to syntax and on. Although this might seem like it should be boring, in fact, Professor Droutt brings humor and insight to his lectures.

The second half takes the student to the history of the English language from its German origins to Anglo-Saxon, the Norman Conquest, the Great Vowel Shift, American dialects and the future of English. This was all fascinating stuff. I particularly appreciated Professor Drout's discussion of the Great Vowell Shift. Professor Drout offered a far better explanation of this mystery than I had ever heard.

[Athena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating lecture series. It delves into linguistics as a whole and then tightens up about the English language as a whole.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've listened to several lecture series by this professor, and I always find them fun to listen to. In terms of material, this series didn't offer too much novel information for me since I've already extensively studied languages in general, and English in particular, but I found it quite enjoyable nonetheless. And there were a few things that caught my attention. For one, it is interesting how sound changes can be used to date when foreign words entered into English-- a good example being wine (which underwent a shift to a 'w' sound) vs. vineyard, borrowed later and so left unchanged. Also, though I knew that the Norman Conquest lead to French influence on English, I think this is the first time I heard that the major influx of French words didn't occur until after 1204 as a result of events that split England from France more fully, resulting in fewer bilingual speakers: French words were only borrowed into English when there were people who still learned French as a prestige language, but didn't learn it as full, native speakers. This points to the one failing I found in the series: in the final lecture on the global impact of English, he seems to think that English being spoken everywhere isn't so bad because people can code switch and so it shouldn't be a threat to other languages and their cultural importance. But that is ignoring the fact that in many countries most everyone may study English, but not everyone will learn it fluently, creating exactly the situation where English words are most likely to be borrowed into other languages.

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael D C Drout's "A History of the English Language" is a wide ranging set of 14 lectures, each 30 minutes in length. He covers topics from how children and adults learn languages, how languages are spoken and constructed, through how languages in general and English evolved. Drout manages to make what could be a "sleep aid" into an interesting study.

I consider myself very fortunate that the local library carries many of the Modern Scholar and Great Course lecture series. They are particularly useful when I am driving, or more often, when I am participating in the region's numerous traffic jams.

I have listened to a number of Drout's lecture series, and have always felt myself well rewarded for the time and focus I spent. Drout manages to provide essential information while keeping the lectures not only interesting, but also conveying a sense of his passion and joy in the material.

I would recommend this, and Dr. Drout's other courses to anyone interested in the covered topics; to anyone interested in making car or other long periods useful; and to anyone interested in learning a bit more about the huge and wonderful world that we live in.

[Edwin B · Rating 3 out of 5]

From its origin as the language of Germanic forest dwellers a thousand years BC; to the infusion of Latin from the Roman expansion; to the bit of Celtic influence from the migration of the Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes to the English isle; to the impact of the Viking occupation; to the influx of French words from the Norman conquest; to the great vowel shift that now differentiates Chaucer from modern English; to today's continuing evolution of English as the global language, and its variation across nations and even within inside the major English-speaking countries - these lectures make sense of the story of the English language. It's interesting to understand how the languages of Europe, India, and parts of the Middle East, evolved from a common root - the Indo-European source language - significantly by means of shifts in pronunciation over time (as much as by territorial dispersion and subsequent inter-mingling of populations via migration and conquest).

[Skip (David) Everling · Rating 4 out of 5]

More interesting than it sounds and the first half is a pretty good introduction to linguistics in general. The second half is the specific history of English, and one of the more interested parts of that half was the dialectic analysis toward the end (including topics like the "pop" vs. "soda" debate). Prof. Drout mentions that modern U.K. dialects have evolved more rapidly since the 1700s than American Standard English, meaning Shakespeare probably had an accent closer to the ways some Americans speak than we what we now consider a refined English accent!

If you're into the study of Language and you speak English then you will probably find this course pretty interesting in content and style. Drout is a fluid and fluent speaker (particularly important here) and he does a good job keeping energy up through technical material.

[Melissa Helton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This helps explain so much of the frustrating oddities of this language. It does a great job demonstrating that language is a living, evolving thing. It felt more like a series of lectures than listening to an audiobook and I want to order the companion materials. I really appreciated his commentary on dialects and code switching in the final chapter. I really want to take a linguistics class now!

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hapax legomena - "...words that appear only one time in the written corpus of a language" - great name for a dog. (p. 38 of Course Guide)

Schwa - upside down "e" - mid-central vowel - as in "bosses" or "punted" = good name for a rock band. (p. 31 of Course Guide)

I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining and educational course. I like Dr. Drout's reading and think he's very witty.

[Moominboy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant audiobook/lecture! The author really knows how to capture the interest of the audience. Even the chapter on usually-boring phonology felt fascinating. It is packed with facts and at the same time easy to digest. And it's concise so you won't spend half of your lifetime listening to it.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting lecture series that taught me the word metathesis, which means switching letters in a word. "Aks" for "ask" is common in many parts of the English-speaking world; in Jamaica, there's not only "aks" but also "deks" for "desk" and "flim" for "film."

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love all of Drout's Modern Scholar series. This is the best one.

[Brad Mclaws · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting really. It is a mixture of linquistics and history of England.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Language nerds dream.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Drout is a great teacher!

[Simon Bullock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and detailed chronology of the metamorphosis of the English language and discusses so many interesting linguistic concepts I've long pondered.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars. Part of the Great Courses series, included in Audible membership.
Another excellent audio recording of a book/course delivered by Prof Drout. I really like his delivery style. He packs a lot of interesting facts in with clear examples, step by step, not rushed. He throws in his own style of humour too, but it’s not too much. Sometimes he responds to a question from the class at the end of the lecture/chapter which is like bonus content. With this recording there was none of the usual Great Courses clapping and trumpet music between each lecture- much better I think.

[Michael Kraitsberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't like the TMS format much, but that's a nice overview.

[Alethea Hammer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable lecture on audible.

[sch]

Jul 2024. Plan as my follow-up to Drout's excellent grammar lectures.

[Anne Hawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dare I admit that two of my favorite books are on Linguistics and Advanced Grammar? I have to confess, I love this book as well as another book by Professor Drout: Understanding Grammar for Powerful Communication (The Modern Scholar: Way with Words, Vol. 3) These books are absolutely fascinating and I could listen to them over and over, there is so much information in them. Professor Drout takes what could be a boring subject and turns it into something humorous and interesting.

This isn't the stale old grammar from high school, although I did like that pretty well too. This is about why we have "ring, rang and rung" when the rule is "walk, walked and walked." It's about how words show their tenses in different languages and how they showed their tenses in the precursors of our modern English. Who would have thought that the way make a verb past was to move the position of the tongue in the mouth instead of adding "ed." Just notice where your tongue and lips are when you say "sing, sang and sung." Why do we have what we call "irregular verbs? They were part of an earlier version of our language.

Even more amazing is the story of the development of language. We are so comfortable with our language and tend to think of other languages as odd when they deviate from ours. Professor Drout starts with some monkeys who have 3 different screams, one for each of their predators. Is that really language? It's a beginning. The monkey brain is too small for adjectives, but I think that the desperation in their voices told a whole lot about whether the predator was especially large and close.

Then Professor Drout takes apart the way children learn language and especially how they learn the grammar of the languages around them. At first children over generalize, but around age 2 they start talking in sentences that are arranged grammatically. Where do they get that ability? It is almost as if they have a grammar gene. We laugh at sentences like "I goed home," but the child is using the grammar he has internalized. No one tells him that the subject usually goes first in a sentence and that you form the past by adding "ed."

Every society, no matter how remote, has language and their language has a grammar that is amazingly similar to all the other languages. Some languages use position in the sentence to indicate the subject, the verb and the direct object, but other languages use word forms, just the way we use the tenses in verbs. Suppose Paul is the subject of the sentence. In some languages, he might be called Paulo with the "o" ending signifying that he is the subject of the sentence. I just made that up, but you get the idea.

The last part of the book deals with terms and accents in our speech. He poses the question of whether you say "soda" or "pop" and what your answer tells about you. He links the accents of the early settlers to a region in the country they emigrated from, explaining the differences in accents from state to state in the US, and gives a history lesson of language.

I probably haven't convinced many people that this is a captivating book, but maybe someone will get the audio book from their library or Audible and enjoy this fascinating subject."

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third such Modern Scholar lecture I've listened to by Dr. Drout. He is a great teacher who is funny and engaging and down-to-earth. I would recommend this lecture but it was probably my least favorite of the three (rhetoric and grammar were the other two I have listened to). Perhaps I feel the way I feel about it because it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I was expected more of a straight up history course. The first roughly half of this was focused on the basics of linguistics and pronunciation etc. All very interesting actually, but still.

[Andrew Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must listen to series for anyone interested in linguistics and philology. Dr Drout conveys very complex liguistic ideas like Grimms and Verners Law and the Great Vowel Shift in an easy to understand way. I highly recommend you follow along with the course book which you can download from the Modern Scholar's website. I plan to listen to all of Professor Drout's lectures on the Modern Scholar Series they are very good and its the next best thing to being in the class room with him!

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

History of the English language does not separate from history of people. I never learned much of history of countries outside of Holland or the USA, so this was enlightening. Also the review of linguistic terms helped me remember the good old college days. It felt as if the lecture was read, not spontaneous with student interaction, as the title suggests. If it is taught this way at college, it would not make points for having educational prowess, more expected in today's multi discipline academic world.

[Cat. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a Modern Scholar course, one of the many released by Recorded Books. This one was excellent. The instructor was interesting to listen to, and kept things moving along, even in the bits where he was trying to explain grammatical rules and phonetics. He begins with basic information about languages in general, and eventually ends up discussing English as it stands today: no longer the language of a small island off Europe, but the lingua franca (ironically) of the world.

Only a geek would call this fun. Oh, well, I guess I'm a geek.