Linguistics in Motion screening of Birth of a Language

Melvyn Bragg begins the story of English in Holland, finding ancestral echoes in the Frisian dialect. What follows is a chapter on survival as the English language weathers Viking and Norman invasions, vying with and eventually absorbing rival tongues. Lively settings such as village pubs and markets bring home the lasting influence of Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, and Old French. The connection between Christianity, Latin, and an alphabet is explored, as well as the role of the language's first champion, King Alfred the Great. Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney reads from and discusses the first epic in English, Beowulf.

The screening of the film will be followed by a Q&A session with Dr. Willem de Reusa, UNT Adjunct Research Professor.

The Linguistics Film Series, Linguistics in Motion, is cosponsored by the UNT Media Library and the Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication.