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This lecture explores the historical development of the English language within the cultural contexts in which it was embedded. Starting with the Germanic languages and the role English plays within them, we will move towards the anglophone world, with a particular emphasis on the sociolinguistic variation that characterises English, in part as a result of repeated waves of language contact. We begin with Proto Indo European and Old English, moving on to the Middle Ages and finally to the global expansion and the differentiation into different genres that characterise the English language. |
