The History of the English Language Part I: Old English

It's been a while since I started this blog thing, but I have been nothing but wantonly negligent. Let's see if I can put a few thoughts down, shall we? This next one is a project I am working on - a 6min40sec presentation, its style called Pecha Kucha, wherein the presenter has 20 slides at 20 seconds each. A sort of antidote to Power Point, if you will.

This one is the beginning 2:20 or so of said project. I am working on presenting the history of the English Language - and I am going to do it poetic verse. So, without further ado, Part I: Old English...

You say tomato and I say tomato,
A difference in pronunciation

That has often distinguished friend from foe;
George Bernard Shaw once said that England and America

Are 2 countries separated by a common language.
But it wasn’t always so.

Permit a fool to tell a tale of
Happiness, triumph, resilience and sorrow,

For today I stand before you
To recount the mystery of our language’s history.


480 AD, in England!
Was the place to be!

T’was whence our story began
(Though Britain has been around since the dawn of man).

We begin with the Foederati
A group of Germanic goons, often mercenary
Who one should NEVER invite to a garden party.

You see, like many a tribal chief,
The Roman Governor needed help with the neighboring thief.
So he hired the Foederati for some relief.

Then the governor stopped paying, which they considered a slight.
In droves, they came by boat day and night.
Angles, Jutes, Frisians, Franks, and Saxons alike

They purged the Picts and Celts and everyone else from this strange rock;
With the natives gone, all but 12 words were forgot.
Though barbaric the invasion and occupation, fade it would that shock.

Our first writing in Old English was made
Beowulf- you may have heard of it-
A tale of 3 monsters versus our hero on a tirade.

Well the Danes kept coming, season after season
A treaty was sought, a yearning for peace its reason.

This great compromise the king foresaw.
Thus the name Alfred the GREAT- for creating the Danelaw.