English 3040. History of the English Language

Professor Barbara Stevenson
Department of English
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, GA 30144
E-Mail Address: bstevens@kennesaw.edu


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Historical Periods of English Varieties of English Web Resources


 

Historical Periods of English

(The sites listed below link to a few specific documents illustrating the history of the English language through hypertext, images, and/or audio files.)

Historical Changes

Pater Noster

C. Ball's versions of The Lord's Prayer from Old to Modern English.

Technology of the Word

J. O'Donnell's collection of images highlighting the history of the book during the Middle Ages.

Old English

Old English Pages

C. Ball's pages include Hwaet!, an introductory lesson on Old English.

Old English at the University of Virginia

Pronunciation practice with excerpts from such works as Beowulf.

The Electronic Beowulf Project

K. Kiernan's explanation of the project includes a color facsimile of the Beowulf manuscript.

Middle English

Harvard Chaucer Pages

        This website includes audiofiles on teaching yourself Middle English and on Chaucer's
        Middle English and language, along with other information on Chaucer's life, times and works.

"The Criying and the Soun"

        These Chaucer Metapages contain links to audiofiles by experts reading Chaucer in Middle English.The Metapages also contain extensive information and links on Chaucer and Middle English.
 

Modern English

Renaissance Printing

Luminarium's Renaissance Resources page has several hyperlinks on the printing press and early printed books.

Internet Shakespeare Editions

Samples from Romeo and Juliet.

A Dictionary of Sensibility

This dictionary links key terms from the Eighteenth Century to excerpts from literature illustrating the terms' multiple connotations.

Godey's Lady's Book

Includes texts and graphics from this popular Victorian woman's magazine.

Hypertext

George Landow discussing hypertext, the new electronic literacy.

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Varieties of English

(The sites below discuss or illustrate characteristics of modern English varieties.)

 

English Around the World (E. L. Easton)

Ethnologue

Ethnologue is a metapage on languages, dialects, creoles, and pidgins around the world.

Do You Speak American? (PBS)

BritSpeak

This "ESL for Americans" contains a British-American and American-British dictionary.

Linguistic Atlas of the U.S.

An introduction to the atlas, with a focus on the Middle and South Atlantic states.

Lowlands-L

A page with links to pidgins, creoles, Africaans, Dutch, Scots, etc.

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Web Resources for the History of the English Language

(While many sites above are fairly specific, the list below refers to extensive pages.)

 

HELL

University of Toronto's site on the history of the English language and linguistics is the very best website available on the subject.

HEL Home Page

This page includes links to the HEL-L discussion group, to the American Dialect Society Page, and to various resources and texts illustrating the history of the English language.

Net Resources for Linguists

A list of language-related resources with links to dictionaries, professional groups, the WWW Virtual Libraries on language and linguistics, etc.

A (Very) Brief History of the English Language

David Wilton's summary and links on the development of the language from Indo-European up to the present. Vocabulary is particularly emphasized.

IPA

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Copyright © 1996, Barbara Stevenson
Revised -- 1/2/2007
Homepage: http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~bstevens/