International Conference: The Once and Future English
10-12 March 2022
University of Notre Dame London Global Gateway
Today, English is spoken or written by about 1.5 billion people, less than a third of whom use it as their first language. This minority-majority reversal has significantly impacted the grammatical characteristics of English, the demographics of the Anglophone population, the domains in which English is used, and attitudes towards the language, which has been characterized both as a venue for increased global communication and as a cultural and economic predator. The history of the language is being rewritten as well, from one defined by conventional periodization and the triumph of English as a Germanic language, to one that has reoriented the historical and contemporary significance of the language’s traditional homelands.
With speakers from 15 countries around the world, The Once and Future English addresses these issues. It asks the question: How will English’s present and past look to future speakers and language historians?
More information at sites.nd.edu/once-and-future-english.
Plenary speakers
- Anne Curzan (University of Michigan)
- Seth Lerer (University of California - San Diego)
- Lynda Mugglestone (University of Oxford)
Sponsors
Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, Henkels Lecture Fund
Notre Dame International
Department of English
Originally published at isla.nd.edu. Please check their event page for details, since this event section may not reflect any changes to the event.