Cheyenne Hendrick

The Eurotales Conference of International Language Museums, February, 2017:

 The people behind 10 language museums met in the splendour of the restored chapel of San Jacopo at the Istituto Lorenzo de Medici, Florence, to share experiences on various ways to educate and enthuse about their languages at the Eurotales conference.

Florence is itself a town filled with treasures. A short distance from the conference, a separate linguistic treasury led the world in its own language enterprise for over 450 years. The Accademia della Crusca has a rich history of leading on the development of the Italian language. Said to be the oldest language academy in the world (founded 1583) the Accademia created its dictionary of the Florentine language in 1612, inspiring a range of other language dictionaries across Europe. Now the Accademia is recognized as the greatest authority on the Italian language in the world.

Representatives from across Europe, Canada and South Africa filled the Eurotales event with a wealth of contributions, which included a warm reception for the developing plans toward our own English Project. A range of language collections of all sizes and shape shared ideas and good practice. And across the collection were language museums from all sorts of background – some state-funded, some private, some very personal to their creator, some university-sponsored, some academic, some more mainstream.

Organised by an intrepid team from the universities of Rome, Florence, and Ankara, this conference addressed issues such as how do we engage visitors with language artefacts and activities; what is the theory underpinning language-museum practice, and what can we all learn from the journey each museum has taken?

To name-check just a few, the Canadian Language Museum, Toronto developed as a portable exhibition to be packed on a train or into car to tour and is the brainchild of Elaine Gold, who blazed a trail similar to that of The English Project, working with a local university to kick-start her exhibitions. Looking to our European friends, we have developed a strong link with Stephanie Lebreton, Director of Le Musee Champollion, Figeac, France, where a local authority regeneration project led to the new and exquisite museum of writing, which hosts themed exhibitions annually to keep new faces visiting.

From Esperanto in Vienna to Afrikaans in Paarl; Lithuanian in Vilnius to Occitan in Cuneo, a treasury of language experience filled the historic chapel for 3 days and many good contacts and friends were made for The English Project. The tone was very much one of international co-operation among language collections. Many of these museums (itself a contentious and perhaps misleading term) celebrate connections between and across languages, many discuss the variety around languages and the diversity within them: the wealth was very much in the range and scale of experience present.

Our conference was a stimulating forum for ideas. Personal friendships were forged in discussions – and, thanks to the generosity of our hosts, over good food and wine. It was fascinating to see the range of views about language policy and the perennial, thorny dilemma of funding. We were all left keen to visit each others’ projects – though some are more ‘virtual’ than others.

There was great excitement at the latest developments in The English Project and much praise for our mission that our mission is descriptive, open-minded, outward-looking – and fun. There was particular interest in the way we might engage with the topic of loanwords (or borrowings) from other languages into English; in our year of the English language and India, food for thought.

Marcus Barrett

Trustee, The English Project

Professor Chrsitopher Mulvey has been invited to write an article for English Review journal following his 2016 monthly English Project Shakespeare blogs.  The journal, published by Hodder Education, is aimed at A-Level English Literature Students.

Entitled ‘Past, present and future: Shakespeare and the Story of English’, Chris discusses the historical emergence of the English that Shakespeare would have spoken and notes its unspecial place among the many other languages in use at that time.  Throughout Shakespeare’s lifetime, however, the tide was turning and English was slowly beginning to come to prominance in Africa, Asia and America.

Chris concludes by examining how English rose to become a global language despite the fact that ‘there is nothing linguistically special about English and no intrinsic reason why it has achieved this commanding role.’

Read Chris’ article by clicking the attachment below:

Past, Present and Future – Shakespeare and the Story of English

Venus and Adonis was William Shakespeare’s first ‘big hit’ when the long poem was published in 1593. Funny and wry in its account of the older Venus’s erotic infatuation with the beautiful youth Adonis (who had other things on his mind) the poem had to be reprinted twelve times to satisfy its enormous popularity especially with students and women.

This abridged version from Cecily O’Neill, accompanied by specially commissioned illustrations by Kate Arnold, adapts the poem for small-scale staged productions. Supported by introductory articles to putthe poem into its literary and historical context (notably the relationship of Shakespeare with Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton to whom the poem was dedicated) it brings  this brilliant but often overlooked work to new readers, performers and theatre audiences.

‘A clever and exciting performance adaptation, which will bring this fascinating but unjustly neglected dramatic poem to the attention of a new audience.’
Professor David Crystal

‘It’s written in the vernacular … the erotic poetry which had been the province of scholars and gentlemen was suddenly being read by every housewife.’
Germaine Greer – Hay Festival 2016

Click here to buy the book from Amazon 

The English Project was delighted this week to receive copies of its first book to be translated into Chinese.  Authors of ‘A History of the English Language in 100 Places’, Bill Lucas and Chris Mulvey, were very excited at the potential size of their new readership!

The book examines the 100 places woldwide which The English Proejct believes to have had the greatest impact on the English language. Some represent historic firsts, some are tied to significant people and some have seen events that have shaped the future of English. Each one takes the reader on a journey into the rich past and potential future of the English tongue.

Of their 100 places, Bill and Chris list Beijing as number 99 and examine the claim of many that Madarin, currently a super-tongue, may overtake English as THE global language by 2050.

‘100 Places’ is also very much a travelogue, and with affluent Chinese tourists exploring many diverse corners of the Earth, it is hoped that sites which have influenced the English language will soon be figuring more strongly in their travel agendas.

English Project Trustee, Professor Chris Mulvey, has been invited to lecture in Paris as the city celebrates the 400th anniversary of the death of the bard.  Chris is delighted and honored to be addressing a prestigious audience at La Mairie du Septième Arrondissement on 25th May and has entitled his talk ‘William Shakeseare: A French Poet?  – A Parisian Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of his Death’.

Chris’ lecture will identify what is French in the language of William Shakespeare by focusing on two of his plays: Romeo and Juliet and Henry the Fifth. 

Romeo and Juliet is the most romantic of his tragedies. It is the most beloved of young people because of its union of love and death. Its verse flows as freely as kisses. Its lyricism is charged equally by sexual expression and sexual repression. The language of Romeo and Juliet has the energies of Shakespeare’s erotic narrative poems and the intensities of his courtly sonnets. 

The Life of Henry the Fifth is a play that rejoices in its hero king, Henry, warrior and wooer. Henry V not only defeated the French; he went on to win the hand of Katherine, the daughter of the King of France. Henry is powerful and kingly in battle. He is playful and winning in courtship. He invades Katharine as he invades France.

Chris explains: ‘French began to be an influence on the English language with the arrival of the French-speaking Norman kings in 1066. In the next five hundred years, English was massively refashioned by French so that by the time Shakespeare was born, English had become a fusion language, a mixture of the Germanic and the Italic. It would be to go too far to call Shakespeare a French poet, but without the French language Shakespeare’s poetry would be a very different poetry.’

Read the full synopsis of Chris’ lecture in English or in French.

Primarily aimed at students of A-level English Language, this thought-provoking material looks at two samples of World War I -related text: a soldier’s personal diary from 1914 and a recruitment poster from 1916.

Exercises encourage students to think analytically about the way that the diary is written and how this differs from our use of English today. There is also a focus on how the War was a catalyst for the coining of new slang and jargon – and how this process is still responsible for the creation of new words, the most ‘successful’ of which are added to the OED every year.

The recruitment poster was designed to encourage men to sign-up for military service before the introduction of conscription.  It is fascinating, both in its design and use of language, and students are encouraged to explore these aspects.

If you choose to use this material for teaching on or around English Language Day, or if you are student who used it as part of your studies, then please let us know what you thought about it (and respond to our challenge about words which you think have been influenced by war!).

The English Project is grateful to the Somerset Military Museum Trust and the Somerset Heritage Centre for their assistance and for permission to use these historical documents.

The material was designed by Marcus Barrett, Head of English at Richard Huish School, Taunton and Alissa Harvey, a student of English Language at Bay House Sixth Form, Gosport.

Download your copy of the teaching resource below:

English Language Day 2014: Language of War