English 403 handouts page

Adam names the animals - one of many myths about language history.

Middle English supplements:

• Middle English notes
• English and French in the ME period
• The Death of Arthur
• Canterbury Tales handout
• The Paston Letters
• Genesis-- Old and Middle English versions

x-ray movie of speech (don't try this at home

Early Modern English supplements:

• Early Modern English overview
• The prodigal son
• The Great Vowel Shift
• Early English Dictionaries
• About Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall of 1604
• The Plan of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
• Inkhorn terms and archaisms
• Excerpt from Hamlet, Act III
• 100 Commonest English words
• Prescriptive rules
• Sir Philip Sidney on the double negative

Modern English supplements:

• New Words in the OED
• Noah Webster's spelling reforms
• Definitions from Webster's first dictionary
• Webster's 1828 Dictionary
• Recent dialect and variety in English
• Stuff white people like: grammar
• Your usage panel
• Plain style
• OED: man and woman
• OED boy and girl
• American Dialect Maps
• Policing English
• The Atlas of North American English
• Ebonics and the politics of English
• Ebonics powerpoint

Official English supplements: some film clips...

• Newt Gingrich and the language of the ghetto
• Newt Gingrich apologizes for his remarks
• The Spanish version of the Star-Spangled Banner
• Daily Show official English segment
• Understanding New Zealanders

other official English materials:

• For Newt Gingrich, English is global, Spanish is ghetto
• Newt Gingrich tones down his attack on Spanish
• Spanish in the USA
• Spanish threatened in Spain?
• Heritage language classes
• Official English: one language for one nation?
• Don't Make English Official: Ban It Instead
• English spoken here?
• Official English from the school house to the White House
• Jose can you see? The Star-Spangled Banner in Spanish
• Linguistic Imperialism
• Pew Hispanic Center report 2007
• Say 'nyet' to Russian

Other important supplements:

• Review for midterm
• Review for Final Exam
• language in the news instructions

CLICK HERE FOR THE FINAL EXAM

Gov. Harding's "Babel Proclamation" of 1918 banned
foreign languages in Iowa

Contemporary bumper sticker combining support for literacy and patriotism with a hefty dose of linguistic imperialism in one pithy remark

Dr. Johnson's definition of a lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge...