Lecture 1. Introduction to the study of language -- lecture 2. Historical study of language -- lecture 3. Indo-European and the prehistory of English -- lecture 4. Reconstructing meaning and sound -- lecture 5. Historical linguistics and studying culture -- lecture 6. Beginnings of English -- lecture 7. The Old English worldview -- lecture 8. Did the Normans really conquer English? -- lecture 9. What did the Normans do to English? -- lecture 10. Chaucer's English -- lecture 11. Dialect representations in Middle English -- lecture 12. Medieval attitudes toward language.

Lecture 13. Return of English as a standard -- lecture 14. Great vowel shift and modern English -- lecture 15. Expanding English vocabulary -- lecture 16. Early modern English syntax and grammar -- lecture 17. Renaissance attitudes toward teaching English -- lecture 18. Shakespeare: drama, grammar, pronunciation -- lecture 19. Shakespeare: poetry, sound, sense -- lecture 20. Bible in English -- lecture 21. Samuel Johnson and his Dictionary -- lecture 22. New standards in English -- lecture 23. Dictionaries and word histories -- lecture 24. Values, words and modernity.

Lecture 25. Beginnings of American English -- lecture 26. American language from Webster to Mencken -- lecture 27. American rhetoric from Jefferson to Lincoln -- lecture 28. Language of the American self -- lecture 29. American regionalism -- lecture 30. American dialects in literature -- lecture 31. Impact of African-American English -- lecture 32. An Anglophone world -- lecture 33. Language of science -- lecture 34. Science of language -- lecture 35. Linguistics and politics in language study -- lecture 36. Conclusions and provocations.