English - an evolving language

In recent times there has been much talk about language - how politicians use language to manipulate, how language can be divisive and promote civil unrest. Claims have been made that the English Language is being destroyed by the Internet, tweets, texts, young people.... that American English is taking over the world. In our group we discuss such issues as - how we acquire language, how English has changed over the centuries, why English spelling is so weird, the language of Chaucer and Shakespeare, Language and Social Class, Accent and Dialect and much more. The group has been running for 5 years now and we will be relaunching in January with a range of new topics. This is not a taught course but a discussion based interactive group. Meetings are held in S8 on the morning of the first Tuesday of each month.