The English language might be abused and misused, as well as celebrated, but it is the means by which two billion people communicate as a first or second language. Now its story is to be told in the world’s first museum dedicated to a language.

The English Project — which is due to open in 2012, as part of the Olympics cultural programme, with support from the British Library and the BBC among others — will aim to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the richness of the English language.

It will trace its development from the mixed tongue of three tribes — the Jutes, Saxons and Angles who crossed the North Sea to make their homes in Britannia in the 5th century — to the global lingua franca of today.

The museum will be built in Winchester — the city of King Alfred, who promoted Old English as a language of learning, literature and law. The city was also a unifying factor for the disparate English, or Anglo-Saxons, at a time when they were threatened by the Viking onslaught.

A campaign is planning to raise up to £25 million from public bodies, individual donors, trusts and foundations. The museum will be announced on March 5 by, among others, David Crystal, an expert on the history of the English language, who will analyse the state of English today.

In a lecture titled “The Future of Englishes”, Professor Crystal will explore how — because of its global reach — new varieties of English are appearing, raising the possibility that it will evolve into a family of languages, much as Latin did a millennium ago.

He said: “English is becoming a new kind of language as a result of these changes, and its investigation — or exhibition in the case of The English Project — demands that we take on board fresh cultural perspectives.”

Through the latest digital technology and speaking holograms, visitors to The English Project will be able to hear how language has constantly evolved through the centuries. A “living language archive” will track the latest developments and additions.

Exhibits will explore the contribution of Scandinavian (Old Norse) by the Vikings and the impact of the Normans. About 10,000 French words were brought into England when the Normans won the Battle of Hastings. “Battle” was among the imported words.

Christopher Mulvey, Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Winchester, said: “The English language is said to contain one million words, vastly more than any person can ever use or even know, and the average Briton is now estimated to use 40,000 words and know another 20,000. Even after 1500, the English never lost the habit of borrowing from French and by then they had picked up the habit of mass borrowings from Latin and Greek for scientific and technical purposes.”

How it all developed

— The melding together from the 5th century onwards of the languages of the invading Jutes, Angles and Saxons

— The establishment of English by King Alfred as a language into which the great Latin works should be translated, and his inspirational educational programme that all freemen should be able to read English so that they could take part in government

— The progressive absorption of French and other continental influences into English after William the First’s conquest of England

— Publication of the dictionary compiled by Dr Johnson (above) symbolic of the attempts to standardise language in the early Modern period

— The peak of the British Empire and the emerging power of American commerce around 1900, so that English was the language of world politics (although not yet diplomacy) and world business

— Neil Armstrong announcing to the world his “giant leap for mankind” by setting foot on the Moon, reflecting the role of English as the language of advanced technology and the lingua franca of the mass media

Source: The English Project

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