The Adventure of English

The Adventure of English
Created by	Melvyn Bragg
Starring	Melvyn Bragg
No. of episodes	8
Production
Running time	45-52 min per episode
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	6 November – 30 November, 2003

The Adventure of English is a British television series (ITV) on the history of the English language presented by Melvyn Bragg as well as a companion book, also written by Bragg. The series ran in 2003.

The series and the book are cast as an adventure story, or the biography of English as if it were a living being, covering the history of the language from its modest beginnings around 500 AD as a minor guttural Germanic dialect from Friesland in the Netherlands to its rise as a truly established global language.

In the television series, Bragg explains the origins and spelling of many words based on the times in which they were introduced into the growing language that would eventually become modern English.

Episode list

#	Episode	Original Airdate
1	"Birth of a Language"	November 6, 2003
Bragg discusses how English dialects in certain areas of the United Kingdom were influenced more heavily by historical events such as the invasion of the Vikings in the east.
2	""English Goes Underground""	November 6, 2003
Bragg discusses how class also affected the use of English, especially in the time of William the Conquerer and for approximately 300 years after his reign; during this period, only the French language and Latin were used in state affairs and by the aristocracy, while English remained in use with the lower peasant classes.
3	""The Battle for the Language of the Bible""	November 13, 2003
In the early to mid 1300s, English fought to be the language of the Christian Bible through the efforts of theologian John Wycliffe, who opposed the church's use of a Latin scripture because it prevented most of the population from reading the bible for themselves. Though Wycliffe died before English became the official language of the bible, Bragg discusses how his translation eventually lead to the transition of various Latin words into the English language, including "emperor," "justice,""profession," "suddenly" or "angel." Eventually, King Henry V of England would use his power in order to create this English language bible in the early 1400s. However, the difficulty of creating a common language for all the English dialects in the United Kingdom had to be addressed since there was such an array of spellings and pronunciations. Bragg explains, "The '-ing' participle, as in 'running,' was said as '-and' in the North, '-end' in the East Midlands, and '-ind' in the West Midlands. So 'running could also be said as 'runnand,'runnind,' and 'runnend.'" The number of spellings was even greater, "Because," Bragg states, "England had traditionally used French of Latin as its written languages, there had never been any need to agree on a common linguistic standard or even how to spell particular words." He gives sixteen different ways in which the word meaning "church" had been spelt at the time, including "kerke," "kirc," "chirche," "cherge" and "schyrche." The Chancery had the duty of creating an official spelling for each spoken word, much of which is still used in modern English. Still, the spelling was confusing because of the debates that went on during this period, for example many words wound up being spelt as to their roots like the words "debt" and "doubt" which came from the French language. The word "rhyme" was given an "h" simply because the word "rhythm" already had one. Around this time the Great Vowel Shift also took place, which made Old English sound familiar to the modern English speaker. The use of an English bible because illegal once more and a man named William Tyndale left the country to write his illegal translation of the bible from the original Hebrew and Greek, and many of his sayings are still used today, including, "scapegoat," "the apple of mine eye," "eat, drink and be merry," and words such as "beautiful" and "zealous." Eventually, Henry VIII of England wished for the creation of an English bible and a new Church of England so that he could divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon. In time, King James I would create an official version of the bible which had become wide spread with various versions. This bible deliberately used words like "ye" and "thou," which were no longer in common use, to create the sense that the words written would appear to be ancient, to have authority.
4	""'This Earth, This Realm, This England'""	November 13, 2003
5	""English in America""	November, 2003
6	""Speaking Proper""	November, 2003
7	""The Language of Empire""	November, 2003
8	""Many Tongues Called English, One World Language""	November, 2003

DVD

• The Adventure of English, (Australasia Region 4 / PAL, Jun 2007)

See also

• History of the English language

External links

• The Adventure of English at IMDb
• The Adventure of English at Hodder Headline
• The Adventure of English at Films Media Group