Contribute to Language Evolution

One of the guest speakers at our conference is Jonnie Robinson, one of the key people behind the fantastic Evolving English exhibition at the British Library. The exhibition charts the history and development of English as a language, featuring a range of ancient texts, sound recordings and interviews with top linguists. It's a comprehensive and fascinating exhibition which is worth visiting at least once, and preferably more often.

Along with the main exhibition itself, there are many extra events. We've already had one on rap's contribution to the language, and one on the history of swearing in English, but still to come are talks from Paul Kerswill on Multicultural London English (March 22nd), a debate about attitudes to language entitled "What is Proper English?" (Mon 7 Feb 2011, 18.30 - 20.00), Paul Baker on the secret (and not so secret) languages of gay communities through history (Tue 15 Feb 2011, 13.00 - 14.00) and Jonnie Robinson himself presenting a talk on the joys of regional English (Wed 23 Feb 2011, 18.30 - 20.00).

You can contribute to Jonnie's session at the Emagazine conference by submitting your data, either as a teacher or student, by visiting our Survey Monkey  questionnaire. The more data we get, the better!