During its infancy, English was a Germanic dialect, hardly recognizable to today’s speakers. But a little over 1,000 years later the language of Shakespeare could be read and understood by nearly every user today. What caused this transformation?

In this presentation Craig Sirles, Ph.D., will trace the evolution of our language, covering the major historical and linguistic events that triggered the immense changes that English
underwent during its first millennium. Craig is a retired professor of English at DePaul University. He received his doctorate in linguistics from Northwestern University.

Register by October 21.