English Language Past and Present 2

There are two English Language groups, meeting monthly on Wednesday afternoons: one
meets on the first Wednesday of the month, the second on the third Wednesday of the month.
The first Wednesday group is full; the third Wednesday group could accommodate one or two
additional people.
The only pre-requisite for these groups is an interest in the English language. We talk about
all aspects of the English language: its origins and development from Anglo-Saxon onwards;
its structure – sounds and spelling, grammar, word formation, words and their meanings; and
the English language in its rich variety – accent and dialect, language and social class, the
languages of different professions.
Recent topics of discussion have included: loanwords, compounds, place names,
pronunciation and spelling, words often confused, modal auxiliary verbs, punctuation.