(most of the sites compiled by the spring 2005 class of the English across Cultures course)
The additional Internet links below will expand students' knowledge of many aspects of the development of the English language through time and of its present-day varieties.
The following sites are useful to review the main events in the history of English:
A wealth of links to many aspects of English, past and present, can be found through The University of Toronto site
The role of the Great Vowel Shift in the changes of English pronunciation can be studied from:
For the origins of and changes in English vocabulary:
A Brief Overview of the History of English Vocabulary
Early to Modern English Vocabulary
The following two sites discuss the influence of the printing press on the spelling of English words:
Wikipedia on the Printing Press
William Caxton and the Printing Press
Some of the present-day variety in English can be seen from:
Differences between Modern American and British English
Finally, here is a site to study interactively the text of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales through parallel text translation and word definitions: