The Adventure of English is a British television series (ITV) about the history of the English language, presented by Melvyn Bragg, with a companion book written by Bragg.
Designed as an adventure story or a biography of English as a living creature, the series and books cover the history of the language from its humble beginnings as a small Germanic dialect around AD 500 to its rise as a truly established world language.
In the TV series, Bragg explains the origin and spelling of many words based on when they were introduced into the evolving language that eventually became modern English.
1. The birth of language. Modern Frisian is closest to English, which was spoken about 2,000 years ago when people from what is now the northern Netherlands traveled to what would become Britain and drove the Celts to the west side of the island. Words like “blue” can be recognized in Frisian.
2. English is going underground. Prague discusses how class influenced the use of English, especially during the time of William the Conqueror and about 300 years after his reign; during this period, only French and Latin were used in state affairs and the aristocracy, while English was used by the lower peasant classes used in .
3. The Biblical Language Controversy. English struggled to become the language of the Christian Bible in the early to mid-13th century through the efforts of theologian John Wycliffe, who objected to the church’s use of the Latin script because it prevented most people from reading the Bible to read themselves.
4. This earth, this kingdom, this England. During the time of Queen Elizabeth I, English began to expand to a deeper level. Overseas trade brought neologisms from France in the 16th century, and the now popular swear words fokkinge (f-king), krappe (nonsense) and bugger from Dutch.
5. American English. After landing in North America, the settlers encountered a native, Squanto, who was captured and brought to England to learn English and become a guide. After escaping, Squanto returned to his tribe, who happened to live near where the English settlers had established their small village.
6. Speak appropriately. The Age of Reason began, and British mathematics and science scholars like Isaac Newton began publishing their works in English rather than Latin. Jonathan Swift tries to free the English language from constant change, followed by Samuel Johnson, who wrote The Dictionary of the English Language, consisting of 43,000 words and definitions , which took seven years to publish in 1755.
7. The language of the empire. British trade and colonization spread the English language. In India, scholar William Jones discovered some English words that had already appeared in Sanskrit. Criminals land in Australia, mixing London crime jargon and Aboriginal languages into a new dialect. Jamaicans revert to dialect.
8. Multiple languages called English, a world language. The globalization of English in the 20th century is largely due to the United States. Here we look at the dominance of black American street talk, how World War II and American cinema threatened to “infect” the mother tongue of Britain, and how some countries tried to prevent the invasion of English – such as France’s Franglais and Singaporean English.
