Future of English
Day-to-day use of English has impacted local languages everywhere, spawning the growth of variants such as India's Hinglish and Singlish in Singapore. Do these variations undermine language, or do they enrich it? This program examines the emergence ...
A Global Language
With the whole world now interconnected, speaking English is commonly seen as a fast track to a good future. Students in Beijing spend Friday evenings practicing the lingo at “English corners,” and employees of a Bangalore call center work on ne...
The Rise of English
How did a language originally spoken in just a small part of the British Isles come to dominate the communication of so many different countries? From its start as a diverse group of Anglo-Saxon dialects and all the way onward to adoption on a globa...
Early English Aloud and Alive: The Language of Beowulf, Chaucer, and Shakespeare
Cultivating an appreciation of the English classics requires studying the mother tongue as it was originally spoken. In this program, Dr. Joseph Gallagher brings language to life by reciting examples of Old, Middle, and Early Modern English in their...
An English-Speaking World
English is a language spoken by two billion people, perhaps even more. This classic PBS program examines the prevalence of English in the world today and presents a historical overview of its rise. Focusing on the expansion of the British Empire and...
The Mother Tongue
The making of English is the story of three great invasions and a cultural revolution. This classic PBS program shows how an early form of English was carried to Britain by invading Anglo-Saxons, how that language was all but obliterated by waves of...