All it takes is a simple S to make most English words plural. But it hasn't always worked that way (and there are, of course, exceptions). John McWhorter looks back to the good old days when English was newly split from German -- and...

How many native English speakers are there in the world today? Learn important facts and statistics about the English-speaking world as well as a history of the language from its Germanic beginnings to the present.

The history of the word bewilder is more straightforward than you might think. Roots can be traced back to the Old English words wilde (undomesticated) and deor (untamed animals), eventually combined into the word wilderness. Jessica...

Claire Bowern traces English from the present day back to its ancient roots, showing how the language has evolved through generations of speakers. [4:54]

Metaphoric compounds, like the combination of the words wind and eye to represent a window, populated Norse and Old English. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel describe how this love of metaphor created the word window. [1:57]

Learn many of the elements which Shakespeare used, or took into consideration, as he wrote the original manuscripts of his plays. How did he shape the English language with new words, how did he evoke settings when plays used few or no...