CREW Review- King Alfred's English

King Alfred's English- A History of the Language We Speak and Why We Should Be Glad We Do, by Laurie White was birthed out of the author's interest of the language we speak and how we came to speak it.  Laurie, a former homeschooling mom of three, has a desire to now pass that interest, and the knowledge she has learned, on to others, ages 12-adult.

Did you know?

*There are around 80 sounds that humans make and the English language only uses 40 of those?

*All unpronounced letters in the English language, like the "gh" in night, were once pronounced.

*During the Middle English period, the English were so determined to act and talk like the French that many of the words we use today are spelled and pronounced the way they are due to French influence.

  Anglo-Saxon-  COW... French- BEEF

    Anglo-Saxon- DEER... French- VENISON

        Anglo-Saxon- CALF ... French- VEAL

*During the time of the printing press, upper case letters got their names because they were kept in the upper trays, and lower case letters were called so because they were kept in the lowest trays since they were used more.

*30-50% of English words are derived from France.

*Shakespeare used 20,138 words in his works; at least 1,700 that he made up!

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what you will learn while reading King's Alfred's English.  You will also learn quite a lot about the History of England, the Bible and many famous people of the Old, Middle and Modern English time periods. Laurie has managed to take what could be a boring run down of the history of the English language and make it fun and engaging to read.

Best of all in my opinion, on Laurie's website The Shorter Word, there are a ton of free resources.  The Student Pages include additional chapter information, related articles, videos and recommended literature and movies.  The Teacher's Pages included worksheets for each chapter which then can be used as study guides for the three included tests.

You can find King Alfred's English on Amazon, CBD, and Rainbow Resources for as little as $14.95.  If you are one of the first four people to comment in the comment section of this post that you would like a copy, Laurie has generously given me a coupon code to share that can save you 50%! 

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    Disclaimer- I received a downloadable copy of King Alfred's English in exchange for my honest review of the book.  Opinions expressed are my own and were not influenced by the company in any way