The History of the English Language
Dates:
Apr 6, 2026
-
May 11, 2026
Time:
2:40 PM - 4:00 PM
Location:
Middleburg Heights Community Church
7165 Big Creek Pkwy, Middleburg Heights, OH 44130, USA
Room:
Fellowship Hall 2
Instructor:
Jerilyn Burgess
Course #:
S26-09
Course Description:
Invasions. War. Politics. Intrigue. Culture. Romance. The History of the English Language, that wonderful tongue we speak every day, will not require you to memorize events in British history it will illustrate how those events shaped our language. Example? The current Oxford English Dictionary contains around 469,470 words, and English has one of the largest lexicons of all modern languages. How did that happen? Well, centuries ago, Roman, Germanic and French invasions brought in their own words. More on that in the class
From those early invasions that transformed our language all the way through our modern slang, phrasal verbs and idioms, we'll talk about everything that has shaped English and how we as speakers have continually changed it throughout the centuries.
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About
Jerilyn Burgess
Jerilyn Friedmann Burgess is a proud BW graduate, 1993. Her English professors had a passion for literature and linguistics, inspiring her to make a living in everything English.