Research Guides: English Language History and Linguistics: General History/Lingusitics

Evolving English @ the British Library

The first exhibition and events programme to explore the English language in all its national and international diversity. At the British Library, 12 November 2010 – 3 April 2011.

http://www.bl.uk/evolvingenglish/

General resources

History of the English Language-Towson Univeristy
Course materials for a class taught by Dr. Edward Duncan at Towson University, Maryland. Includes video lectures, handouts, and online research aids for various topics.
Links to History of the English Language Resources
Links page from the course materials for a class taught by Dr. Edward Duncan at Towson University, Maryland.
Routes of English: BBC Radio 4
Listen to radio programs and read about this history of English. Programs include "Evolving English," "humour and Cussing," 'Accents and Dialects," "People and Places," "Talking Posh," and "Churchill's Roar."

Linguistics Websites

International Phonetic Association

Includes a reproduction of The International Phonetic Alphabet (Revised to 2005)

The Linguist List

"The LINGUIST List is dedicated to providing information on language and language analysis, and to providing the discipline of linguistics with the infrastructure necessary to function in the digital world. LINGUIST maintains a web-site with over 2000 pages and runs a mailing list with over 25,000 subscribers worldwide. LINGUIST also hosts searchable archives of over 100 other linguistic mailing lists and runs research projects which develop tools for the field, e.g., a peer-reviewed database of language and language-family information, and recommendations of best practice for digitizing endangered languages data."

"The Domain of Linguistics" by The Linguistic Society of America

The publisher of the journal Language, the Linguistic Society of America website offers a comprehensive introduction to the field of linguistics, with articles covering 20+ topics. The LSA website also contains links to other organizations and student resources.

Accents and Dialects

American Dialect Society
"Founded in 1889, the American Dialect Society is dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it...American Speech is the society's quarterly journal."

Includes a list of links to language-related sites around the world.
British Library: Archival Sound Recordings: Accents and Dialects
British Library: Archival Sound Recordings: Survey of English dialects
Listen to 288 extracts from the Survey of English Dialects, a groundbreaking nationwide survey of the vernacular speech of England, undertaken by researchers at the University of Leeds.
British Library: Sounds Familiar?
The UK is a rich landscape of regional accents and dialects, each evidence of our society’ s continuity and change, our local history and our day-to-day lives. This site captures and celebrates the diversity of spoken English in the second half of the twentieth century.
Routes of English: Dialects and Accents (BBC Radio 4)
A radio program in six segments about various British English dialects.