Windows and Nice Women - a romp through the history of the English Language”by Dr Emma Jolly

 

We are fortunate to speak English along with an estimated 1,400 million people worldwide. (17% of the world’s population) followed by the 1,140m who speak Mandarin; 609m; Hindi; 559m Spanish; 309m French. English also has the world’s largest vocabulary with 200,000 words (OED).

So, this month’s talk -

Emma took us from the Germanic roots of Old English, through Middle English, the incorporation of French and Latin into our language, in part due to Chaucer, Dr Johnson and others.

A talk full of fascinating facts and amusing anecdotes it proved very popular. Emma bought us right up to date by telling us of words that are now disappearing and the new words coming into our vocabulary. Such disappearing words as O levels, slide rules, yuppie, and cougars. New emerging words including self-storage units, rizz (meaning charisma) and the newest words cis, grooming, gender neutral, trans, terf and situationship.

To illustrate how changes can occur Emma told us of polysemic words and their use in crosswords e.g. mouse: a rodent, a computer gadget, an affectionate term for a wife, and a knob on stays!

 

Next Talk.

October 8th. - Brockenhurst - A World War 1 Hospital Village – talk by Di Fletcher.