A Light History of the English Language

Although it brought back painful memories of translating line-by-line the Old English epic Beowulf (which, trust me, is not in English), Professor Elliott Engel's lighthearted overview of the birth of English offers a fine mix of historical tidbits and downright knee-slappers. Boasting nearly 600,000 words in our bloated lexicon (as compared to say, the French's 180,000), English speakers have "more ways to say the same stupid thing than anyone else on Earth." The reason: English is primarily comprised of Anglo-Saxon (a guttural series of harsh consonants combined with grunts) and French Latin (a flowery language that makes you want to hurl). As Engel points out, the word "sweat" hails from Anglo-Saxon, while the word "perspire" (which, incidentally, also carries no smell) comes from French Latin. Filmed as a straight-talking head lecture, in which--and here's my only quibble--Engel doesn't look directly at the camera (making the "me" generation feel a little left out), the professor traces the evolution of language first, followed by the history of English, right up to our current slide into Slurvian--otherwise known as teenspeak (where "did you eat?" becomes "jeet?"). Highly recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)