10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, Greater London SW1Y 5AH
UK
English vocabulary owes an enormous debt to the other languages of medieval Britain. Arguably, nowhere is this debt more significant than in the twelfth century – a complex and fascinating period of transition, when (amongst many other things) influence from both Norse and French is increasingly apparent in writing. This lecture will explore the etymologies, meanings and contexts of some key words from this crucial time, as a way to think about the evidence for contact and change at the boundary of Old and Middle English and to illustrate how rich, diverse, challenging and surprising its voices can be.
About the speaker:
Dr Richard Dance is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic and a Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He is the author of a number of books and articles about Old and Middle English language and literature.