History of Spoken English by Charlie Haylock – University of Suffolk

The History of Spoken English

This is not a talk on split infinitives, and what the differences are between the past participle and the past tense. Definitely not!

Suffolk dialect expert and Honorary Graduate of the University Charlie Haylock will show us how the seeds of spoken English were first set. He will also show us how each invading force affected the English language, and the different sounds they brought; from the Angles and Saxons to the Vikings and Normans.

How Shakespeare was really spoken; the effect of the Italian Renaissance on the English language; how England, by being an international trading nation, adopted words from across the globe.

Charlie will include a dialect tour of the British Isles and further afield, and demonstrate the different facial expressions of each dialect; and how a deaf person he knows can tell what dialect a person has; just by lip reading.

Very informative and highly entertaining.

Charlie Haylock giving a speech at the University of Suffolk in October 2023 for his honorary degree ceremony (photo credit: University of Suffolk/Gregg Brown Photography)