Go back to the passage written in Middle English by Caxton found earlier in this chapter. How is English today different from English of his day? Look at spelling, pronunciation, grammar, morphology and pronunciation.
Using any Shakespeare play or sonnet, find 10 nouns, verbs or adjectives that are in common use today that have a different meaning currently than in his time. You may use any glossary of Early Modern English to support your claim. Start by identifying words that seem not to fit current usage patterns.
Find excerpts from Chaucer and identify at least 5 words that show a different manner of pluralisation than we use for Modern English.
Using either an on-line or paper dictionary, locate 10 words that have been borrowed into English from languages other than Romance or Germanic languages.
Suggested Readings
Bryson, B., & Case, D. (2015). The Mother Tongue. HarperCollins.
Gooden, P. (2009). The Story of English: How the English Language Conquered the World. Quercus Books.
McCrum, R. (2011). Globish: How the English Language Became the World's Language. Anchor Canada.
Salih, A. A. (2021). The future of English and its varieties: An applied linguistic perspective. English Language Teaching, 14(4), 16-24.
