News

SOUTHERN DAILY ECHO: Winchester academics have released an in-depth look at the history of the English language as they push for a dedicated museum in the city. 

Prof Bill Lucas and Prof Christopher Mulvey have written A History of the English Language in 100 Places, a look at how English has developed over centuries.  Winchester is among the most significant locations because of its links with King Alfred, who played a key role in the evolution of the language.

Other places featured include Stratford, birthplace of Shakespeare, several parts of London, the USA, West Africa and Scandinavia.

The pair have each written several books individually and are part of the English Project, which is trying to set up and English language museum in the city. Prof Lucas said: “There were two drivers behind this. The first is we were both largely influenced by Neil MacGregor’s A History of the World in 100 Objects, which really appealed to us. “The second is this is something that could be the first floor of an English language museum. It would be a really good way interactively to tell the story of the places that have shaped the language.”

Prof Mulvey added: “Half a billion people speak it as a native tongue and there are around 1.5billion who range from being highly fluent to being able to say hello.”

The English Project is looking at River Park Leisure Centre as a possible site for the museum and the pair have not given up on securing the location. Prof Lucas said: “There is uncertainty about what will happen there and our own sense is if the forensic examination of the possible bones of King Alfred reveals it is him, then suddenly the reasons for having an English Project museum there would become overwhelming.  “We would see Alfred being a seminal link between that site and our museum.”

He added: “I think the autumn is integral and when we hear news on the bones we will have clearer signs over what will happen there. But we have to do something on that site and we have a very clear plan on what we would do if we had the land.”

As previously reported by the Chronicle, the museum would contain exhibitions on the language, local history and a touring exhibition.

Read the story in the Echo

The Winchester and Portsmouth Dioceses Heat for the Thomas Cranmer Awards was held at St Paul’s Church, Winchester on Tues 13 November. The Awards are an annual competition run by the Prayer Book Society to introduce young people to the Book of Common Prayer.  Chairman of the panel of judges this year was Christopher Mulvey.  Chris is a Trustee of the English Project and Winchester University’s Emeritus Professor of English. 

Competitors have to read a passage of their own choosing. First in the under 15s category was Jack Falconer and Osita Ighodaro was the runner up. Susan Dowall came first in the over 15s grouping and Joe Venable was the runner up. They will now go forward to the national finals to be held at York in February 2013. There they will have to recite from memory, passages from the Book of Common Prayer.

The English Project wishes them luck and is happy to support this event because no better English prose can be found than Thomas Cranmer’s prayers and his selection of sixteenth-century biblical translations by Martin Tyndale and Myles Coverdale.

English Language A-level students at Richard Huish College in Taunton had a lot ‘on their plate’ last week when the English Language Team, Sue Morkane, Jo-Ann Sharpless and Marcus Barrett, held the College’s second English Language Day event. 

During break time, all 230 English Language students met in the college hall to launch its annual mentoring scheme and to celebrate English Language Day.

The theme this year was the ‘language of making and baking’ and the task set to all English Language A-level students was to think-up as many related phrases, idioms and clichés in ten minutes. The winning group had forty-five of their commonly used expressions accepted including “whisked away”, “cheesed-off” and “big cheese.” The runner-up group with thirty-eight winners were: Alex Coombs, Laura Jameson-Cook, Katy Harris, Jack Halstead, Claire Hancock, Shannon Hughes with runners-up: Felicity Brazington, Chloe Snell, Ellie Barrett, Jenna Angle, Tim Batstone and Jade Beer. Cash prizes were awarded to each person in both groups in a presentation outside the College’s newly re-designed Learning Centre, by English Language teachers Sue Morkane and Marcus Barrett, pictured, with winning students.phrases added to the language soup with “silly sausage”, “the proof is in the pudding” and “easy as pie” along with many others.

Marcus Barrett, Course Manager for English Language, commented: “The linguistic point behind celebrating English Language Day like this is to remind us how our language is built-up from areas of specialist skill – like the language of the kitchen – and just how many such phrases find their way into our own everyday language. We were pleased to be able again to combine the very practical support system which we have developed with our second-year Mentors, with something which promotes the study of the English Language.”

He added: “The English Project chose 13^th October as the date for celebrating the language as that was the date when English was first used – rather than French – to open Parliament. At Richard Huish College we have our own way of marking the day – when our students get together for the first time as mentors and mentees. On a lighter note, we did have to exclude a few phrases which we felt didn’t quite make the mark: ‘you can’t get blood out of a turnip’ was felt to be a bit of a mixed, West Country metaphor!