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‘The extraordinarily prolific David Crystal has deluged the market with authoritative books about language over the last couple of decades – but it’s a testament to the enduring appeal of language as a topic for the lay reader that this hasn’t stopped a plethora of other great books about language from doing well too: books about etymology, usage, grammar, dialect, and so on, have proliferated in recent years.

Now, here is a great book about language, history and place, by Bill Lucas and Christopher Mulvey, academics, and trustees of ‘The English Project’, at Winchester University.

The English Project is an organisation that ‘promotes awareness and understanding of the unfolding global story of the English language in all its varieties – past, present and future’. It has made ‘English Language Day’ a part of the national calendar (October 13th being the day in 1362 when Parliament was opened for the first time by a speech in English rather than in French), and has engaged the public in a number of language gathering projects such as ‘Kitchen Table Lingo’ and ‘Location Lingo’. Its long-term aim is the establishment of a kind of visitor centre for the English language in Winchester. Full details, along with plenty of ideas for use in tackling the history and development of English in the classroom, can be found at its website www.englishproject.org.

Appropriately for an organisation seeking to create a specific place where people can go to find out about the English Language, it has published a book called A History of the English Language in 100 Places (Robert Hale £25). It’s a beautiful and fascinating book too, richly illustrated and a pleasure to read. Its 8 central chapters comprise 100 sections, each a couple of pages long, each taking one place in the world (approximately half of them in Britain) where the English language (or our understanding of it) has undergone a notable development.

It starts with Undley Common in Suffolk, where the earliest known example of written English (c.475 AD) was found in a field, inscribed on a gold pendant from the lands of our Germanic forebears in northern Europe; and it finishes with Vienna, where a research project called VOICE (the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English) is studying the phenomenon of ELF (English as a lingua franca), whereby speakers of different first languages use English a means of mutually intelligible communication. In between, the book visits its own home, Winchester, and places as far afield as Waitangi in New Zealand, Chennai in India, Cape Town in South Africa, and the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon.

A History of the English Language in 100 Places works on several different levels. With its 100 language landmarks, it makes an ideal book for dipping into for private reading – and teachers could also use each section as a quick and fascinating language starter in English lessons, in the style of ‘poem for the day’. On the other hand, the book is also chronologically arranged by chapter – covering old English, middle English, early modern English, the beginnings of world English in the 17th century, the standards agenda of the 18th century, the industrial age in the 19th century, the 20th century, and the technological revolution: so the book may also be read as a history of the language.

David Crystal, in his introduction, calls the book a ‘geobiography’ of the English language, and, certainly,

in taking 100 episodes in language history as a starting point, and linking them to geographical landmarks, the book achieves a refreshing new take on a familiar history. Released from the conventional narrative structure of history books by its 100 separate episodes, the book is a hugely enjoyable read, partly because of its episodic nature, partly because Lucas and Mulvey succeed in being both highly authoritative and highly accessible, and partly because its yield-rate of fascinating facts and perspectives is so high.

The ever-flowing pen of David Crystal has, in fact, produced a similar book recently. Wordsmiths and Warriors: the English-Language Tourist’s Guide to Britain (OUP 2013, £20) adopts the combined geographical and chronological approach, too, visiting 57 places (all in Britain) in 57 short chapters – a fair few of them the same places as in Lucas and Mulvey’s book. The difference here is that Crystal’s book also contains elements of travelogue, the result of a journey across Britain by Crystal and his wife to visit all the places he writes about. It’s also an enjoyable and fascinating read.’

Gary Snapper

Editor, Teaching English, National Association for the Teaching of English

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (27 October 2013): p18.  A project tells the story of the English language through 100 locations, starting in Suffolk and ending in Vienna – with stops in Hastings, Beijing and the moon along the way. 

From a piece of farmland in Suffolk, to Vienna, via Hastings, Beijing and even the moon – it may sound like an unusual journey.  But these are the places, identified in a new study, which have helped to create, shape and spread the English language around the globe – and beyond.

They have all been included in a new project which aims to tell the story of the language through 100 locations. It has been conducted by the English Project, a charity devoted to study of the subject.

The scheme was launched in 2010, with a request for the public to help, by providing suggested locations.  That phase has now been completed and the first 100 locations are described in a new book, A History Of The English Language In 100 Places.

It starts in Undley Common at Lakenheath, Suffolk, in 475 where arguably the first use of English was found on a bracteate – a thin piece of metal worn as jewellery – unearthed by a farmer, and ends in the Austrian capital, in 2012, where the University of Vienna is assembling a database of recordings of more than one million words of English, spoken by people for whom it is not their first language, in order to analyse trends.

Between the two, the book tells how English developed on these shores, before spreading around the world in countries like America, India, and Australia, and was then taken up in other parts of the globe where it is not a first language.

Some time in the last decade, the number of people speaking English as a second language is thought to have overtaken those who speak it as a first language.

Stops along the way include Hastings, in 1066, when the Norman Conquest led to French influence on the language, and Helsinki, in 1993, where text messaging was developed. Other locations have been chosen to signify a range of historical figures, such as William Shakespeare and William Caxton, movements of people and emerging technology which have helped to shape the language.

Bill Lucas, a professor at the University of Winchester, said: “The language has developed and continuously evolved since its beginnings, some time in the early fifth century. And we are very keen to explore just how significant a role geography has had in these changes,”

“What began as the language of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes on a small island has become a global property. It is owned and shaped by almost two billion English speakers across the Earth. Through an extraordinary combination of accidents, conquests and technological advances, English is now the language of the world.”

The project is ongoing and more locations are being encouraged. To submit a suggestion, visit the charity’s website, www.englishproject.org

York, 866

Norse-speaking Danes occupy the city and establish settlements across the east of the country, bringing with them words which enter the language. There are at least nine hundred words of Norse origin in standard modern English, among them ‘egg’, ‘husband’, and ‘leg’. Only the French have had such a profound influence on English as the Danes.

Chancery Street, London, c1419

A letter from King Henry V, on campaign in France, is sent back to his government in England updating them on the latest intelligence he had received about fears of an attack from Scotland. It is thought to have been read out to nobles in the Lord Chancellor’s office, increasingly known as the Chancery. Unlike correspondence from previous kings, written in Latin or French, this one was written in English.

Bruges, 1474

The site of the printing of the first book in English, The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. William Caxton, who had translated it himself from French, later returned to England where he set up a printing press in Westminster.

Northolt, 1551

John Hart wrote The Opening of the Unreasonable Writing of our Inglish Toung. Never published in his life time, it was about English spelling, and it is thought to be the first systematic study of the subject. He suggested spelling should be phonologically based. Thirty five years later, in Chichester, a schoolmaster published a pamphlet by William Bullokar: Or rather too be saied hiz abbreuiation of hiz grammar for English, extracted out-of hiz grammar at-larg. More generally known as Pamphlet for Grammar, it was the first guide of its kind.

Nimes, 1695

Hard-wearing cotton fabrics produced in the French town, “serge de Nimes”, entered the English language in around 1695 as “denim”. The town has been included in the list to show how place names have been used to create new words. Other toponyms, as they are known, include: bungalow, a corruption of ‘Bengal’, describing the kind of cottages built by European settlers in that part of India; hamburger – minced beef from the German city of Hamburg in the nineteenth century; and magenta, the distinctive crimson colour discovered at the time of the battle of Magenta in Italy, in 1859.

St Martin-le-Grand, London, 1840

The Uniform Penny Post was introduced, covering the whole of Britain, precipitating the growth of letter writing across the country. On the first day after its introduction, 112,000 letters were posted – three times the number of letters posted on the same date the previous year.

Salford, 1850

The Royal Museum and Public Library opened in Salford, with 10,000 books. Considered the first public library, it had more than 1,200 visitors a day in its first year. The same year, the Public Libraries Act was passed in England, enabling boroughs to levy a tax to provide free public libraries. The institutions are credited with massively increasing access to reading.

New York, 1913

The first crossword appears in the New York World. The first in Britain followed in 1922, in Pearson’s Magazine. It is included to show the popularity of written word puzzles, which date back to Roman times.

The Empire State Building, 1941

The first television advertisements – for Bulova watches – are broadcast by WX2XBS – later NBC – from its transmitter on the building, during a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. Several trade names have themselves become words, including Hoover, Sellotape, Thermos, and, more recently, Google.

Sea of Tranquillity, 1969

English is spoken on the moon as Neil Armstrong reported the landing of Apollo 11’s lunar module. Once safely touched down, he spoke to those back in Cape Kennedy saying ‘Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed finally’. His more famous words – still the subject of debate – came a few hours later, when he climbed onto the surface of the moon. The space age has contributed many words to the language, among them booster seats, for children, lift off, unmanned, soft landing, and shuttle.

Beverly Hills, USA, 2008

Included to show the influence of “teen speak”, popularised by television shows such as 90210 – which started in this year – set in the area of California and starring AnnaLynne McCord. The language is marked by the rapidity with which it changes and the speed with which it spreads. One characteristic is the use of exclamations, such as: Deezam!, Oh Snap!, Shut up!, That Bites!, Yo!, Who’s Your Daddy!, OMG!. ‘Shut up!’ is not an insult but an affirmation.

The article by Jasper Copping appeared in the Sunday Telegraph on 27 Oct 2013 but may be read on-line here

Prof Bill Lucas appeared on the BBC’s flagship Breakfast programme on English Language Day (Sunday 13th October). Bill chatted with presenters Naga Munchetty and John Kay about the significance of the date of English Language Day, which commemorates the 13th October 1362 when Parliament was opened for the first time in English.  He also discussed the English Project’s latest initiative: to gather from the public, landmark locations which have had an impact on the way we speak English today.  Bill mentioned many places worldwide, which he believed bore the footprints of linguistic development and he posed the questions to John & Naga: ‘Where was Tim Berners-Lee when he invented the worldwide web, where was Facebook invented and where was the first text sent from?’

With the Chancellor, George Osborne, and London Mayor, Boris Johnson, currently visiting China, the questioning also explored whether Mandarin rather than English, might not become a more significant global language in the future.  

Naga also expressed her prejudice against the coining of new words such as ‘chillaxing’ – ‘Naga, you’re not embracing the times!’ Bill told her.

Watch Bill’s appearance on BBC Breakfast.

Tell us what you think.

A charity is launching a bid to track down the geographical origins of the English language and is asking for the public to nominate places.

The English Project is stepping up its global search for locations that may at some time have shaped the way English is spoken and the words used today.  The search for locations comes on the eve of English Language Day tomorrow – with this year’s theme focusing on English as the global language.

The organisation has already published a book called A History Of The English Language In 100 Places that charts the origins of the language from Undley Common at Lakenheath, Suffolk, in 475 where arguably the first use of English was found on a bracteate, to text English which originated in Helsinki, Finland, in 1993.

“Our rich language has developed and continuously evolved since its beginnings, some time in the early fifth century. And we are very keen to explore just how significant a role geography has had in these changes,” said Professor Bill Lucas, of The English Project. “We are keen to know about significant individual writers and speakers – and where they live or lived, where did English arrive in a new country? Where can a social or political trend best be marked? And where were important battles fought?

“What began as the language of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes on a small island has become a global property. It is owned and shaped by almost two billion English speakers across the Earth. Through an extraordinary combination of accidents, conquests and technological advances, English is now the language of the world.”

“We have made an excellent start by publishing the new book,” added Professor Christopher Mulvey, also from the project. “But there is so much more to know – and we want people to contribute by contacting us through our website.”

Anyone wishing to contribute to the project can visit www.englishproject.org to share facts and locations.

The English Project is a national charity seeking to create the first ever museum for the English Language in Winchester, Hampshire. It is backed by well-known figures such as Melvyn Bragg and Jeremy Paxman.

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‘What a brilliant idea! I love this book. Its structure is ingenious, its content endlessly fascinating. There are many ways to display the history of a language, especially one with such a rich history as English, and this is one of the most ingenious and revealing I’ve ever seen.’ Launched at the Winchester Festival, A History of the English Language in 100 Places is out now! 

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN 100 PLACES by Bill Lucas and Christopher Mulvey of the English Project is a joyous ride through time, where readers can criss-cross the British Isles and the world at large to land in a hundred contrasting places and alight on a hundred wonderful topics that bring the extraordinary story of the English language alive. Any selection of places is inevitably personal. Nevertheless, a number of criteria have directed the selection of places in this book; 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 an unmissable journey into the rich past of the English tongue.

What began as the language of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes on a small island has become a global property owned and shaped by almost 2 billion English speakers across the world. English has borrowed words from more than 350 languages, and many more languages have borrowed words from English. In an age of cheap air travel and internet communication we have become a global village. If you’ve ever been curious about the global language that binds us all together, A History of the English Language in 100 Places is for you.

KEY POINTS
• A global treatment of the global language – a fascinating book for anyone interested in English
• A first-class textbook (suitable for A/AS English Language and a range of university courses)
• Doubles up as a brilliant and quirky travel guide
• Reader-friendly: in-depth studies in easily digested portions

Buy your copy from Amazon.co.uk here

THE AUTHORS
BILL LUCAS is the Professor of Learning and Co-Director at the Centre for Real-World Learning at the University of Winchester. The best-selling author of more than forty books which have been widely translated, he is also a trustee of The English Project, Chairman of The Talent Foundation and a Patron of Pegasus Theatre, Oxford.

CHRISTOPHER MULVEY is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Winchester. A prolific writer, he is also Managing Editor at the Winchester University Press and a trustee of the English Project. He has received awards from the Arts and Humanities Council, the British Academy, and the University of Virginia. He was President of the Collegium for African American Research from 2003 to 2007 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts in 2008.