The unit that discussed the origins of English opened my eyes to a totally different sector of the English language. I found it interesting that English is a part of the western branch of Germanic languages. I never realized until now that words such as weariness, clothes, house, and climb are all borrowings from Old English. When I read some of the excerpts from Old English and Middle English I felt as if I was reading German. The English language has truly evolved. The examples by Bede and Shakespeare show true evidence of that fact. Looking at the Runic alphabet and translating symbols into words from Old English was something new. Learning about the difference between a thorn and an ash really helped the translation process.
In the fourth unit I did some research on dyslexia. The misconceptions that I had about the disorder have been changed. After looking at various web sites I found that dyslexia is not just a disorder that is found in children. Adults have dyslexia too. I also thought that people who had this disorder could not read and this was also untrue. Dyslexics can read but they have different problems with comprehension and understanding. The root of the disorder in the imbalance of the inner ear.
I also learned there were voiced, voiceless, and aspirated letters within words. I never took the time until now to sit down and study the phonology of English until this class. There are so many phonemes in the English vocabulary.
My research on eponyms has helped me understand that all words have a history. I found so many words developed from names and lots of fascinating stories to go along with them. From the presentations, I gained insight into the Lumbee dialect and some of the phrases common to this area.The presentation on morphemes helped clearly explain the eight inflections in the language. I learned political correctness is much more than changing the gender of a word. I also saw a correlation between college slang and black slang. Although there is a such thing as standard English, there are many other variations of the English language that are not to be labeled wrong or incorrect.
After this course I realize that the English language is much more than
verbs, nouns, and adjectives. It is important to read between the lines
and see that words sometimes have deeper meanings. The complexity of the
English language makes it something to study and analyze for many years.