Chapter 3:
The Muse of Fire (90-129)
The Muse
Of Fire
31
1
The Story of English
By Don L. F. Nilsen
Based on The Story of English
By Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil
and William Cran (Penguin, 2003)
31
2
The English Renaissance
• 1476: Caxton’s Printing Press at
Westminster—resulted in a rise of the middle
class
• Henry VIII broke with Rome—established the
Anglican Church
• Queen Elizabeth was threatened by the
superpowers of France and Spain (Napoleon
& Spanish Armada)
• James I had the Bible translated (McCrum 93)
• Greek & Latin Inkhorn Terms had entered
English (Inkhorn, European, Four-Letter
31
3
Words)
James VI  James I
• James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots
and he wrote broad Scots, but when he left
Holyroodhouse to move South to Edinburgh,
he became a Lowland Scot (McCrum 148).
• James VI of Scotland became James I of the
British Isles. He was the first king of the
entire British Isles and wanted to unite
everybody in the Kingdom.
• So he had the Bible translated into the best
English possible
31
4
Features of Renaissance
English
Verbs:
-est
-eth
Pronouns:
Thou
Thee
Thy
Thine
Ye
31
(McCrum 101)
5
Shakespeare’s Comedies
•
•
•
•
•
All’s Well that Ends Well
Comedy of Errors
Love’s Labors Lost
Merry Wives of Windsor
Midsummer Night’s Dream
– Bottom’s Dream
31
6
Shakespeare’s Histories
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Antony and Cleopatra
Henry V
Henry VIII
Julius Caesar
Richard II
Richard III
The Tempest: written 2 years after
Jamestown about the wreck of the Sea
Venture 500 miles East of Charlestown, SC.
31
7
Shakespeare’s Romances
• Much Ado about Nothing
• The Taming of the Shrew
• Romeo and Juliet (started as a comedy;
became a tragedy when Mercutio was
killed)
31
8
Shakespeare’s Tragedies
• Hamlet
–
–
–
–
–
The Mad Scene (Polonius in wings)
The Grave-Digger’s Scene (Yorick)
To be or not to be (Slings and Arrows)
The Mouse Trap (cf. Agatha Christie)
Good Night, Sweet Prince
• King Lear
– The fool is not the fool
• MacBeth
– Drunken Porter’s Scene
– Lady MacBeth’s “Out out, damn spot”
• The Merchant of Venice
– Portia in drag as a lawyer (her defense)
• Othello
– Put out the light and then put out the light (McCrum 10231
9
English Authors
•
•
•
•
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion
Lerner & Lowe’s My Fair Lady
George Orwell’s Animal Farm & 1984
31
10
The King-James (Authorized)
Bible
• 6 Groups of Translators of at least 8
translators per group (6 years of hard
work)
– Two groups in Westminster (London)
– Two groups in Oxford (Royalist)
– Two groups in Cambridge (Puritan)
– (McCrum 113, 116)
31
11
English Comes to America
• New England (r-less) was settled by Puritans
from East Anglia, Kent, Yorkshire & Devon (rless and British /a/)—The Mayflower sailed
from Plymouth to Plymouth Rock, MA in 1620
• Rest of America (with r & flat /æ/) was settled
by immigrants from Southwestern England
(with r and flat /æ/) (McCrum 116-117)
31
12
England: Flat /æ/ vs r-less Dialects (McCrum 114/115)
31
13
English in America
• /r/ is generally pronounced
• Flat /æ/ is most frequent
• Missile, fertile, sterile (stress front
shifted)
• Secretary, laboratory advertisement
(stress front shifted)
31
14
English Colonization Names
CITIES:
Baltimore
Boston
Cambridge
Charleston
Columbus
Durham
Elizabethtown
Georgia
Jamestown
STATES:
N/S Carolina
Hoytoyters (from the
Tidewater States)
31
15
English Colonization Names II
CITIES:
Lewiston
Lincoln
New Bedford
New Brunswick
New Hampshire
New Haven
Newport
Norfolk
STATES:
New England
Newfoundland
(Canada)
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
31
16
English Colonization Names
III
CITIES:
Plymouth (Rock)
Portland
Portsmouth
Raleigh
Richmond
St. George
Williamsburg
STATES:
Nova Scotia (Canada)
(W) Virginia
31
17
Tidewater English (McCrum 107/115)
31
18
American English before 1776 (McCrum
118/119)
31
19
Indian Names
CITIES:
STATES (26=Indian):
Chataqua
Chattanooga
Cheyenne
Cincinnati
Minneapolis
Missoula
Mojave
Saginaw
Arkansas
Connecticut
Delaware
N/S Dakota
Illinois
Iowa
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Missouri
31
20
Indian Names II
CITIES:
Sioux City
Sioux Falls
Spokane
Tuscaloosa
Wichita
Yosemite
Yuma
STATES:
Montana
Nebraska
Ohio
Oregon
Tennessee
Utah
Wisconsin
Wyoming
31
21
Indian Words
Plants:
Hickory
Pecan
Squash
Sequoia
Animals:
Chipmunk
Moose
Racoon
Terrapin
Woodchuck
(McCrum 122123)
31
Etc:
Igloo
Kayak
Moccasin
Mugwump
Papoose
Pow-Wow
Squaw
Tomahawk
Teepee
Wigwam
22
Indian Loan Translations
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Firewater (whiskey)
Indian summer
To bury the hatchet
To go on the warpath
To play possum
To smoke the peace pipe
warpaint
31
23
English vs. French vs. Spanish vs. Dutch (McCrum
119/120)
31
24
Dutch Words
Boss (white domestic
servants used this
word rather than
“massa”)
Brooklyn
Caboose
Coleslaw
Cookie
Haarlem
New Amsterdam
Poppycock
Sleigh
Spook
Waffle
Yankee (McCrum 128)
31
25
French Colonization Names
CITIES:
Baton Rouge
Coeur d’Alene
Des Moines
Detroit
Dubuque
Eau Claire
STATES:
Louisiana
31
26
French Colonization Names II
CITIES:
Louisville
New Orleans
St Cloud
St Louis
St Paul
Terre Haute
STATES:
31
27
French Words (McCrum 126)
Bayou
Cajun
Castle
Depot
Dime
Gopher (go-for)
(honeycomb)
Hotel
Levee
Parlay
Porter
Porpoise
Puny
Saloon
Voyageur
31
28
Spanish Colonization Names
New Spain: AZ, CA, NM TX (125)
CITIES: A-E
Alama Gordo
Amarillo
Butte
Cape Canaveral
El Dorado
El Paso
Fresno
STATES:
Arizona
California
Colorado
Florida
Nevada
New Mexico
Texas
31
29
Spanish Colonization Names
II
CITIES: K-O
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Mesa
Rio Salado
Sacramento
San Diego
San Luis Obispo
STATES:
31
30
!Spanish Colonization Names
III
CITIES: P-Z
Santa Barbara
Santa Fe
Santa Maria
Santa Rosa
Sierra Madres
Sierra Nevada
STATES:
31
31
!!Spanish Words
Ranch Culture Food:
Desparado
Cafeteria
Hacienda
Enchilada
Hoosegow
Marijuana
Machismo
Pinto (Beans &
Mosquito
Horse)
Rodeo
Taco
Sombrero
Tortilla
Stampede
Tornado
Tostado
31
Etc:
Armadillo
Cockroach
Coronado
Dago
Incommunicad
o
(McCrum 125126)
32
!!!Nilsen PowerPoint & DVD
• My Fair Lady DVD by Lerner and Lowe,
based on Pygmalion by George
Bernard Shaw
• Spanish-English Contrastive Analysis
31
33
Works Cited
• McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and
Robert MacNeil. The Story of English.
New York, NY: Penguin, 1986. (source
of map citations)
• McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and
Robert MacNeil. The Story of English:
Third Revised Edition. New York, NY:
Penguin, 2003. (source of text citations)
31
34