And The Wife Of Bath

Hearing the words 'Old English', we may tend to assume that it couldn't be very different from the language we speak today. Well, that can't be far off from the truth. Reading the poem, 'The Wife of Bath' in Old English was more like discovering a new language for most of us. Here's the report of what happened in class as told by Caroline Bosco.

' Manjushree read the Old English version of Geoffrey Chaucer's poem, 'The Wife of Bath' out loud to the class and was congratulated by Mrs. Nayar for the good attempt. Mrs. Nayar then proceeded explain to us that the 'e's at the ends were to be stressed upon and the 'a's were to be pronounced with a gutteral 'ah', informing us that Chaucer's writings belonged to the period of the 'Great Vowel Shift'. The class had a lot of fun trying to read the poetry while Mridula read it out loud. Mrs. Nayar was impressed that the class tried to read together. And as she read effortlessly and flawlessly, loud applause followed.' 

  

- Photos by Sajan Tom

More on the History of a Language we Thought we Knew.

Debayani and Namrata put together a presentation giving an introduction to Roman Britain, how the Roman Celts continued to war with the Saxons while Roman Britain came to an end. The Saxon Conquest of Britain, details of late Saxon England and the end of the Saxon rule to the beginning of the Norman conquest. Overall, it was informative and peppered with images and maps to help us visualize better.

     Bishal resumed his presentation with the aid of a Powerpoint, titled "Normans, here they come!" He spoke of the influence on English social structure and illustrated the invasion of the Normans using images of the Tapestry of Bayeaux, that is said to retell history... He went on to mention changes in architecture, literature and society, also giving an introduction to feudalism. Centralisation brought the French language and culture and the languages of French and English merged together to form 'Middle English'. The Normans introduced castles of wood initially and then of stone and established London as the capital. Women lost their right to consent to marriage and widows, the right to remarry.
     He showed us the Feudal pyramid headed by the King followed by the Nobles, Knights/ Vassals, Freeman, Servants, Peasants/Serfs/Villeins. He explained how Grammar was simplified and the middle class gained access to education causing both the Upper and Middle classes to become bilingual. The Feudal system was not created to provide social justice.

- A report by Caroline (parts of it compiled by Daniella) and photographs by Michael.

How English came to Be.

Meera presented on the emergence of the English language. The presentation included innovative ideas like perceiving the class to be the 'Island of Britain" and presenting students as the Celts, the Normans, the Vikings, Alfred the Great and William Shakespeare. On the island, the first to come were the Celts. They spoke the Celtic language and were mainly farmers. Even though they were the first inhabitants, they did not contribute to the emergence of the English language. Julius Caesar conquered the Celts in 55 B.C. The Romans ruled over Britain for 500 years till the French and Germans invaded. Then came the Anglo-Saxon era. The Anglo-Saxons were agriculturalists. They provided the basic building blocks for English like 'God', 'heaven', 'hell', 'here' and 'there'. Eighty percent of the words we use in the English language today are said to have Anglo-Saxon roots. The Christian missionaries, too, made significant contributions like 'Angel' which came from the Latin word 'Angelus' which means 'messenger'.
     The missionaries were followed by Vikings from Denmark and Alfred the Great. 250 years later, the Normans conquered Britain. They used to speak French.
     During this period, French became the language of the rich, English, the language of the peasants and Latin, the language of the Church. (Shakespeare)
     Bishal started with the history of Norman Rule and promised the presentation for the next class. Then, after thought he decided to proceed with a short presentation in the same class, setting up the laptop and projector.
     Meanwhile, Smitha introduced us to the position of the English language in the medieval period, mentioning the holy Emperor Charlemagne. She went ahead to inform us about Chaucer being the father of modern literature. She had Namrata read out an excerpt from the 'Cantebury Tales' and then concluded.
    With some help from Mrs. Anupama, Bishal continued his presentation giving us the Feudal Structure.

-A report by Caroline and Anjana and photographs by Sajan Tom.