Thursday, January 27, 2011

Changing Language - timelines and wordlists


We've now looked at a number of ways new words are formed, why words come into English from other languages and also why some words develop new meanings over time. The Language Timeline on the British Library Learning website gives a short overview of the variety of influences on English vocabulary with lots of examples through our history. You can also follow the link to their new interactive time line which shows our language changing through a huge variety of texts held by the Library. This will be especially useful when preparing for exams as you can see actual texts from 1600 onwards.

If you look under 'Activities' you can get to other very useful word lists - for example 20th Century loanwords which gives a detailed list of borrowings both cultural and social under topic headings.


To help you think about your own input to language change, explore the Cutting Edge section to find examples of slang, jargon and fashionable buzzwords - which may even be outdated by the time you read this!

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