Biblioblog

Here is my biblioblog!
Proto-Indo-European Language Family
1. Short, Daniel. Family Tree of Indo-European Languages. 2007. 11 Jun 2008 .
This site goes through the European Family ties. It has visual trees that have links to each part of the European family and a further description of each part of the family. It also has a nice chart of the history if the English language and describes all of the various language contacts that affected it. I really like this site because it’s so easy to navigate, and the charts are easy to read and it’s so easy to get more information. The specific language parts you can click on have a map of where they are and it’s really neat to see and read about.

2. "Proto Indo-Eurpean." 12 Jun 2008 .
This site is a description of the history of the proto Indo-European language as well as the culture of the early speakers. It also goes through the various aspects of the language, or as much of it is available to us today. It is fairly easy to understand. I enjoyed this site because it gave a bit of an overall view of the language and it is easy for me to understand. I also liked that it gave a bit of the culture of the place.
Pre-Angle Saxon

3. "Transformations of Celtic Mythology in Arthurian Legend." Ancient Echoes. Oct 1997. 13 Jun 2008 .
This site describes the way that Celtic culture has influenced myths that we still have today. It describes the Celts a little and then how their traditions live on. It has many graphics that illustrate some of the way these myths appear in art. I really like this site, because I come from a Celtic background and I worry about the way that it is diminishing, but I can see the way that the traditions that I come from are still evident in our modern day. They language of the site is easy to understand and of use to us today.


Germanic
4. "Germanic Languages." 22 Feb 2004. 16 Jun 2008 .
This site has a tree of the Germanic languages that goes from the beginning to modern day Germanic languages. It has links on the different parts of the branches which go to descriptions of that part of the branch. There are also extra things that don’t have to do with one particular part (grimm’s law for example) that are in the ‘other commentary.’ I really like this site because it is easy to use and that descriptions are brief and concise and you can get to any part of it easily and can see the languages that are closest to each other see the relations between them.

5. Herrera, Bridget. Germanic Mythology. 1995. 13 Jun 2008 .
This site describes the mythology of the Germanic people. It has links to the story of the creation and the various gods and they’re characteristics. The site is not well put together as far as looks goes, but it has good information that is easy to understand. I like the way you can click on any God and understand what he is like. I am a fan of mythology in general and it is interesting to see the Germanic myths that are usually not very well known.


Old English
6. Baker, Peter. Introduction to Old English. 2003. 13 Jun 2008 .
This site is rather unique because it is a book that exists in print but is here online. It goes through an introduction of the Anglo-Saxon language and then has a chapter on each part of the Old English Language: Pronunciation; basic grammar; case; pronouns; nouns; verbs; adjectives; numerals; adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions; concord; word-order; meter; poetic style; the grammar of poetry; reading of old English manuscripts. Each of these parts has is own chapter and goes into detail about each part. Each chapter is broken up into various aspects and you can click to go exactly what you are looking for. There are also charts that show the parts of speech and cases and the like. I really like this sight because it is detailed, but easy to get to exactly what you need. Also it’s written like a textbook so it’s fairly easy to understand and to learn. I wish I had found this sight when I was doing my OE bard blog.

7. Rabun, Joanne. "Ye Olde English Sayings." rootsweb. 1997. rootsweb. 16 Jun 2008 .
This is a fun site, not everything is fact on it but it goes through the etymologies of phrases. It is mostly folk etymologies that go through what we’ve handed down through the ages as the original occurrences of certain phrases. I like this site because we’ve been studying the etymologies of words and it’s fun to see the etymologies of phrases. I think you have to take the stuff on here with a grain of salt a lot of it is legend, but I think some of it is true. It’s fun to look at and read.

8. The Oldest English Epic. Trans and Ed. Francis B. Gummere. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1914.
This book is very useful in looking at Old English. It has a little introduction and then the translated versions of Beowulf and other Old English texts. These texts give us some of the only clues that we have about the Old English culture. We learn that the oral tradition is very strong among many other things. In literature we see the way the culture is perceived by the author. It is a very useful tool for understanding our predecessors.

9. "The Lord of the Rings: explore your questions about the Lord of the Rings." Nitional Geographic Society (2008). National Geographic. .
This site is very interesting. It goes through Lord of the Rings and the background of all the cultural aspects and language of the books, but also the way that our cultures have affected it. I really like this because I like the Lord of the Rings, but it so interesting to see the way that dying cultures and lost languages are represented in Lord of the Rings and how important it is and what happens when something is lost. I found it pertinent to old English because of the influences that Old English had in the book, especially in the names of the people.
Middle English

10. McSparran, Frances. Middle English Dictionary. 2001. University of Michigan. 16 Jun 2008 .
This site is a dictionary of Middle English terms. I really like it because when you type in a Modern English word it shows you all the cases the old English form and the Middle English form. It is really useful and easy to use.

11. Middle English. 16 Jun 2008 .
This is a nice site that goes through the chronology of middle English. It also has a description of the language itself. It has sub divisions of the Middle English period, which is nice to see it broken down into different periods. It’s not the best looking site and you just scroll down to look at the whole thing, but the information is good and easy to understand, so I think it is a useful site.

12. Jokinen, Anniina. Geoffery Chaucer. 16 Oct 2007. 16 Jun 2008 .
This site has a biography and goes through the literature of Chaucer. Also there are essays available that have been written about his works. The site is put together well and has nice pictures of him and pertinent things. I like this site because Chaucer was such a great influence on the English language that I think he is important and this site goes through his life and works well. I think that it is also nice to be able to look at the contemporary essays on his work as well.

13. Rikharsdottir, Sif. "The Imperial Implications of Medival Translation: Old Norse and Middle English Versions of Marie de Franc'es Lais.." Studies in Philology 105.2(2008): 144-164.
“The article explores some issues of cultural dominance and imperial influence in textual transmission during the late Middle Ages in northern Europe. The author examines the adaptations of the story "Lais," by Marie de France into Old Norse and Middle English. He looks at the interrelations of the various national cultures and the respective medieval vernaculars through linguistic and contextual analysis of the translations. He also aims to give a comparative model of translation as intercultural by drawing on and conversing with postcolonial studies.” I like this article because I have studied Marie de France in my French classes and I had never thought about how the translation can affect the way her poetry is viewed. It is a pretty long article, but the parts that I read were interesting to me and I think that it also shows the way that languages interacted and affected each other during the middle ages which is so important for the way languages developed.

14. Liberman, Erez, Michel, Jean-Baptiste, Jackson, Joe, Tang, Tina, Nowak, Maritin A.. "Quantifying teh evolutionary dynamics of language." Nature 449. 7163(2007): 713-717.
I really like this article because it talks about the way that human language changes and how rules change and how culture affects these changes in language. I think that this is such an important part of language and I really enjoyed the article. It was pretty short as well, which is always nice.

15. Early English Christian Poetry. Trans and Ed. Charles W. Kennedy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1952.
I found this book to be very useful to look at the old and middle English time periods. This book basically has an introduction and than a forward in front of each piece that is translated into alliterative verse. The Christian church was the greatest inspiration for the arts during this time period and it is so wonderful to see the way that these artists devoted themselves to their beliefs. I think this is useful in looking at the culture of the period as well.
Early Modern English

16. Travel and Drama in Shakespeare's time. Ed. Jean-Pierre Maquerlot and Michèle Willems. Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 1996.
This book explores the interconnection between voyage narratives and travel plays when foreign relations and travel were so extensive. The chapters are written by different authors who each explore a different aspect of travel and drama. For example chapter 8 is “pirates and ‘turning Turk’ in Renaissance drama.” This chapter goes through how the pirates and oriental influences affected the drama of the renaissance. I found this book to be very interesting and extremely helpful for discovering connections between countries, which also affects the language. Many of the chapters focus more on the actual language. I think that traveling since the early modern English time period is an essential part of the language development and that is why I found this book so fascinating.

17. The "Other" Eighteenth Century. Ed. Robert W. Uphaus and Gretchen M. Foster. East Lansing: Colleagues Press, 1991.
This is an anthology of women’s writing from 1660-1800. “The purpose of this textbook is to reclaim the tradition of women’s writing in England . . . and to restore this tradition to its rightful place in the present-day canon.” It goes through and has several different types of literature written by women during this time period. There are plays, poetry, prose, and letters. I find this book absolutely useful as an indication for the way that women use language. I really appreciate the editors of this book for recognizing the importance of women in English literature and language.

18. Early Modern English Grammar: morphology & morphological change. 16 Jun 2008 .

This site describes the differences between prescriptive and descriptive grammar and then it describes the grammar of Early Modern English. I like this site because it’s easy to understand and it teaches something about the culture of the time period as well. I think it’s interesting and fun to read.

19. Fifty Modern English Writers. Ed. W. Somerset Maugham. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1934.
This is simply a compilation of Modern English writers. In Maugham’s preface he states that he would like a book of reasonable size to take with him on trips to entertain himself and that is why he compiled this anthology. I happen to think that it is a brilliant idea and I am extremely fond of literature of this period. Literature is the best place to analyze language because you can see all the different things you can do with words. It is simply remarkable the pictures that can be painted and I think that the authors compiled in this book have a great capacity for language. That is why I think that this book is useful.

Present Day English
20. Structure of Present Day English . 16 Jun 2008 .
I like this site because it goes through the structure of present day English. The site has links to each of the different parts of speech. It is easy to understand and makes the grammar of today’s English easy to understand. It also goes through the changes throughout the English language, which is nice to see.

21. Mosser, Daniel W.. The Evolution of Present-Day English. 1998. Department of English at Virginia Tech. 16 Jun 2008 .
This site goes through the changes of the English language. It has links to the various aspects of the changes. It goes through the periods as well as by Topic. The descriptions are easy to understand and easy to follow. This site is so interesting because it goes through the way that English changes, which is such a crucial part of the language. The site has a quote from Chaucer that I think is so interesting. “The forme of Speche is chaunge…” I really think that is very true of language.

22. Common Words in American and British English. 16 Jun 2008 .
This site gives different words that are common in American and British English. I like it because it’s just a chart that has the different words. I think it’s fun to see the different words that each version of English uses. I noticed that the British ones are often more tied to their French counterparts than the American ones. I find that funny.
World English

23. World-English. 16 Jun 2008 .

This site has links to news stations all over the world. It’s so cool because you can just click on it and see the way that newscasters all of the world speak English. I thin it’s a good site to indicate not only the different accents, but also cultural differences and language use differences.

24. English Speaking Countries. 16 Jun 2008 .

This site has a map of the world and you can click on any continent and see where English is spoken on that continent. It’s pretty cool and it shows them on a map as well as a little description and a flag of each of the English (or partially) speaking countries. It’s so amazing to see how much English really is a world language.

25. Englsih and Technology. 2007. 16 Jun 2008 .
This is a neat site because it shows how the new advances in technology affect the way that language changes. Also the way that the world has needed more English to be technological advanced. Technology has really made English a huge language in the world.