The Adventure Of English - Episode 6 Speaking Proper - BBC Documentary

The Age of Reason began, and English scholars of mathematics and science like Isaac Newton started publishing their books in English instead of Latin. Jonathan Swift would attempt to save the English language from perpetual change, followed by Samuel Johnson who would write the A Dictionary of the English Language, made up of 43,000 words and definitions, written in seven years and published in 1755. Though the upper and lower classes found no reason to change or improve their grammar, the middle class used it to their advantage in joining polite society. William Cobbett, a son of the lower middle class and writer of Rural Rides, advising those who wish to rise above their station that writing and speaking properly was essential. As English began to replace Gaelic in Scotland it took on its own character, using “bonnie“ from the French “bon“ and “kolf“ from the Dutch for “club“, the probable origin for “golf“. Several other words came from Gaelic