This fifth iteration of this group follows the academic year and is based on the curriculum for speech and language therapists. We start with Proto Indo European and find why Welsh and Bengali are so similar – see picture. What do a newt, and adder and orange have in common? Why did English suddenly become less like German in 1132? Will all our consonants merge into glottal stops? And how many vowel phonemes are there? How come every infant of 12 months knows this and we don't? We finish with the evolving front line - tech acronyms, cyber punk, and the OED's struggle to keep up with Love Island. Is this progress, or laziness? Will we ever stop swearing and what happened to blasphemy?
History-themed sessions will be on weeks 1 ,3, 5 etc. Linguistic-themed sessions will be on even-numbered weeks, and are more challenging. If you think you could get a good GCSE in Latin, and another in German, you'll cope. If you're not sure, sit back and follow the history once a fortnight. The session plan may be found at www.laghamon.com.