Ah, English – what a delightful accident of history you are, providing a lingua franca for the modern world, a linguistic headache for your learners, and gainful employment for me. This page is for articles on both the structure and history of the language, as well as tips I have picked up for how to get the better of it.
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23/6/2021 – You Know More Than You Think About: Beowulf
Think Beowulf is nothing but ye olde incomprehensible Ænglishe? Let me show you how much you actually already know.
20/7/2021 – You Know More Than You Think About: The Wanderer
A heart-wrenching poem of loss and loneliness that feels so modern, despite being over a thousand years old. You’ll love it – so why let language stand in your way?
17/3/2022 – Of Mouses and Mans? — The Origins of English’s Vowel-Swapping Nouns and Verbs
English has a rebellious and diehard gang of nouns and verbs that like to change their vowels. How did English come to have this system — or systems?
22/8/2023 – Five Antiquities of English
There’s lots of good stuff out there on how English has changed over the centuries, but how about the ways in which English is really old?
4/2/2024 – Streets Ahead: When Roman Roads Met Old English
Here’s a rabbit hole of word nerdery that I recently fell down, all about a subtle legacy of Rome in English place names.
Danny L. Bate 