This was a CD course from the Teaching Company, which I listened to while driving to and from work. The course was fairly well done, although I got a bit annoyed with Seth Lerer telling us what he was going to say, then say it, and finally telling us what he did say. Okay, it is good teaching practice, but in 30 minutes, I think it was a waste of time.

The topics covered where the origins of Anglo-Saxon, through the Middle Ages, then past the Great Vowel Shift, and on to modern English. It was a fairly thorough overview, with some details. I would have liked a bit more in depth information for some topics of special interest to me. One thing I thought was interesting is that it conflicted in part with some of the ideas in The Story of Language, also by the Teaching Company.

Now I want to do more reading in linguistics. ( )

From Indo-European to modern scientific language, this is an overview of the English language, with particular focus on England, the United States, and examples from literature that show not only the language itself, but attitudes about proper usage and grammar.

I cannot pretend to be an expert, but I enjoy popular works on language, and this audio lecture series was no exception. Professor Lerer presents 36 college-level lectures. His delivery is smooth without sounding stilted or droning. Some audience response is also audible, making you feel like you're really sitting in on a lecture. I found the lectures extremely accessible, and found little overlap between the information presented and the Intro to Linguistics class that I took in college several years ago. I especially enjoyed the way in which Prof. Lerer uses literature to back up his points, quoting from such works as The Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, the King James Bible, and Moby Dick. In fact, I was a little surprised to find that, yet again, reading leads to more reading and my TBR list has grown as a result. ( )