by Melvyn Bragg
Sanskrit
trade with
words from
Indo-European
Industrial Revolution
“industry,”
Inkhorn Controversy
“The Integrated Adjective” (O’Grady)
Interlingua
international language
Internet
intoxication
Ireland/Irish
Italian
Jackson, Andrew
Jamaica
James VI, King
Japan
jeans (Levis)
Jefferson, Thomas
Jenkins, Jennifer
Jespersen, Otto
John, King
Johnson, Samuel
Jones, Charles C., Jr.
Jones, William
Jonson, Ben
journalism
Jutes
“kangaroo,”
Keats, John
King James Bible
Kipling, Rudyard
“knave,”
knights
Knox, Alfred
Kolkata (Calcutta)
Ku Klux Klan
Lake District (England)
Langland, William
language
disappearance of
evolution of
international/global
as means to end all disputes
original
as product of all types of people
universal
written (see writing)
Latin
Alfred’s translations
Black Death, effects of
as international language
language of the Church
Normans and
Renaissance and
science and
words from
Wycliffe’s Bible translation and
Lauder, Afferbeck
Lavoisier, Antoine
Lawrence, D. H.
Le Dictionnaire de l’Académie Française
Let Stalk Strine (Lauder)
Lewis, Meriwether
Lewis and Clark expedition
Lindisfarne Gospels
Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English
lions
Little Dorrit (Dickens)
Lloyds Coffee House
Locke, John
Lockhart, John
Lollards
London (England)
London Labour and the London Poor (Mayhew)
Lord’s Prayer
Lou, Miss
Louisiana Purchase
Lowe, Katie
Lowth, Robert
lullaby
Luther, Martin
Lyell, Charles
Lyrical Ballads (Wordsworth)
Macaulay, Thomas Babington
Macmillan, Harold
Macpherson, James
Macquarie Dictionary
Made in America (Bryson)
Magna Carta
malapropisms
Malay
Maldon, Battle of (991)
Malory, Thomas
Mandarin Chinese
Manning, Harold
Marie de France
Marshall, William, Earl of Pembroke
Masters of Chancery
Matthew Bible
Matthews, Samuel
Mayflower Compact
Mayhew, Henry
McCoy, Joseph
McCrum, Robert
medicine
The Memoirs of John Ker of Kersland
The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare)
Mexican language
Middle English
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare)
Mill, John Stuart
Mind Your Hs, Harry Hawkins’ H Book
Modern English
Mohocks
Monboddo, Lord
More, Thomas
Morrison, Toni
Mother Tongue (Bryson)
movies
Mugglestone, Linda
Mulcaster, Richard
My Fair Lady (movie)
The Myrrour of the Worlde
Mystery Plays
Nahautl
Native Americans
Indian pidgin
Pilgrims and
words from
Netherlands
New England Primer
New England’s Prospect (Wood)
Newton, Isaac
A New Voyage to Guinea (Smith)
Nicholas of Guildford
Nicolini, Marquis
Niger-Congo language family
“nigger,”
Nixon, Richard
Norman Conquest
assimilation
Black Death and
Edward I
Eleanor of Aquitaine
feudalism
Henry II, King
Henry IV, King
Peasant’s Revolt (1381)
Richard II
survival of English
William the Conqueror
Norman French
almost synonyms
English resistance to
imposition of
as language of trade
poetic tradition
Renaissance and
as threat to English
words from
Northanger Abbey (Austen)
Norwegians
novels
Novial
Of English Verse (Waller)
O’Grady, John
“OK/okay,”
Old English
Alfred’s translations from Latin
alphabet
American western frontier and
Battle of Maldon, story of
Beowulf
Christianity and
Churchill’s speech
common words from
Cumbrian dialect and
Exeter Book
Inkhorn Controversy
lullaby
Norman Conquest and
plurals
prepositions
Shakespeare and
word order
written
Oldmixon, John
Old Norse
Oliver Twist (Dickens)
Omeros (Walcott)
On the Dialect of the Craven (Anon)
Oregon trail
Orm
Ormulum (Orm)
Orwell, George
Ossian Poems
Othello (Shakespeare)
Our Mutual Friend (Dickens)
Ovington, John
“The Owl and the Nightingale” (Nicholas of Guildford)
Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford University
Paine, Thomas
Paston Letters
Pastoral Care (Pope Gregory)
Patterson, Banjo
Patwa
Peano, Giuseppe
Peasants’ Revolt (1381)
Penkridge, Richard
Penn, William
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Dutch
Persian
Peru
Peterborough Chronicle
Pettie, George
Pevensey Castle (England)
Philip II, King
Philip IV, King
physics
pidgin
Piers Plowman (Langland)
Pinker, Stephen
piracy
plague
plain English
planets
Plimouth Plantation (Massachusetts)
plurals
Poems — Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Burns)
poetry
alliterative verse
Beowulf
Burns, Robert
fixed language and
Keats, John
Langland’s Piers Plowman
Norman Conquest and
Ossian Poems
Renaissance
runes and
Scotland
Wordsworth, William
Polychronicon (
Higden)
Poor LittleH — Its Use and Abuse
Pope, Alexander
Porter, Roy
Portugal
prefixes
prepositions
Priestley, Joseph
printing press
Pronouncing Dictionary (Walker)
pronouns
pronunciation
Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue (Swift)
Protestantism
Protocollum books
Puttenham, George
Pygmalion (Shaw)
Queen’s Men
racism
Raj
Raleigh, Walter
Ralph Roister Doister
Rasta
The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye (Caxton translation)
Renaissance. See also Shakespeare, William
dialects and
dictionaries
imported vocabulary
Inkhorn Controversy
poetry
theater
Richard II,
Richardson, Samuel
The Rights of Man (Paine)
The Rivals (Sheridan)
Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)
Robison, John
Roget, Peter Mark
Roman alphabet
Roman Catholic Church
Alfred’s Latin-English translations
arrival in England
book-burning
Council of Constance (1414)
English and
power of
Tyndale and
Wycliffe and
Romance languages
Roman Empire
Romany words
The Routes of English (radio)
Roy, Rammohan
Royal Society
rude words
The Rudiments of English Grammar (Priestley)
Rules to be Observed by the Natives of Scotland for attaining a just Pronunciation of English (Walker)
runes
Russian
Sabir
St. Kitts
Sanskrit
Santa Fe trail
Savage, Richard (Iscariot Hackney)
Saxons
Schleyer, Johann Martin
science
Scotland
Scots in America
Select Society (Edinburgh)
“Sermo Lupi” (Wulfstan)
Shakespeare, William
Antony and Cleopatra
censorship of
education
Hamlet
Henry V
knave insults
life of
The Merry Wives of Windsor
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Othello
sonnets
The Tempest
use of dialects
use of swear words
words from
Shaw, George Bernard
Shepherd’s Play
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley
Sheridan, Thomas
Sherwood, Martha
Short Introduction to English Grammar (Lowth)
Sidney, Philip
Sigismund, Emperor, King of Hungary
Signet Office
Singapore/Singlish
slang
slavery
Smellie, William
Smith, Adam
Smith, William
Smith, William (captain)
soaps (television)
sonnets
South Africa
Spain
Spanish Armada
spelling
spelling bees
Spenser, Edmund
spirituals
Squanto
Standard English
black English vs.
Chancery and
dialects
Great Vowel Shift (GVS)
Henry V and
plurals
printing press and
spelling
Tamperers and
Stratford-upon-Avon (England)
Strauss, Levi
stress
“subject-matter,”
sugar
Sullivan’s Island (South Carolina)
“Sumer is icumen in” (song)
surnames
swear words. See also rude words
Swift, Jonathan
syllables
synonyms
The Table Alphabeticall (Cawdrey)
Tall Talk
Tamil
Tamperers
technology
television
The Tempest (Shakespeare)
1066 and All That
Text English
Thanksgiving
theater
The Times (London, India)
Todd, Mike
Tooke, John Horne
Tower of Babel
trade
French and
India
slave
and spread of English
Vikings and
Treatise on the Lowland Dialect of Scotland (Douglas)
Trevisa, John
Tristram Shandy (Sterne)
Troilus and Criseyde (Chaucer)
Troyes, Treaty of (1420)
Twain, Mark
Tyler, Wat
Tyndale, William
Ulstermen
Uncle Remus stories
Uranus
van Buren, Martin
Vaux, James Hardy
verb-to-noun conversions
Victoria, Queen
Vikings
Danes
influence on English place and family names
Norwegians
Old Norse
words from
“virtue,”
Volapuk
Voyages (Hakluyt)
Wace (poet)
Walcott, Derek
Wales/Welsh
Walker, John
Waller, Edmund
“Waltzing Matilda” (Patterson)
Warner, Thomas
Watt, James
Webster, Noah
Weever, John
Welsh. See Wales/Welsh
West African languages
western frontier. See American western frontier
West Indies
African languages in
creole
English dialects in
pidgin
sugar
words from
White Tower (London)
Whitman, Walt
Wigton (England)
Wilberforce, William
Wilde, Oscar
Wilkins, John
William I, King, the Conqueror
William of Malmesbury
William of Nassington
Wilson, Thomas
Wilson, Woodrow
Witherspoon, John
Wodehouse, P. G.
Wolsey, Cardinal
Wood, William
word order
Wordsworth, William
World War I
writing
alphabets
importance of
and speech, gap between
spelling
Wulfstan, Archbishop
Wyatt, Thomas
Wycliffe, John
Yiddish
Yorkshire English
Zamenhof, L. L.
