History Of English

Why it is so tricky to learn the pronunciation of ‘iron’. — Many new learners of English eventually come across the curious word ‘iron’. At the beginning, they will intuitively pronounce the word /ˈʌɪrən/. However, they will soon be corrected by the teacher and asked to use the ‘right’ pronunciation, which is /ˈʌɪə(r)n/.

It took a global lockdown to afford me the time to write this blog, so I figure it makes sense to digest some of the interesting etymologies of words arising more commonly in a time of a pandemic and enforced quarantines. Pandemic is a word from Greek composed of pan…

Speaking English is a uniquely human trait*, and so is belief in God (at least, as far as we know), which is fortunate for this terribly contrived effort to start talking about gods. The Greek word for god is theos, which graces us with the study of God in the…

Let’s begin in ancient Greece. Around 6% of Modern English is of direct Greek descent, with its influence mostly concerning the portion of our vocabulary relating to academics, politics, science and religion. There are obvious candidates, like democracy (demos = people, kratia = power), marathon (a town in Greece) and…

Here is an essay on the major changes in the pronoun system of English since the beginning of the Modern English Period. I recommend this essay on the history of the English pronoun system as a good example for English Major students in a university or college. The development of the pronoun system of English The English pronoun…