Jenny Chisholm is a retired teacher, with experience of working with gifted kids and a passion for sharing her love of language enrichment. She is kindly giving her time and expertise for free to Explorers. (Donations are welcome). Places are limited to the first ten children to register. The sessions is aimed at year 8-9 children, but if your child is keen and it fits their interest, they are welcome to attend.

History of your language:

Where did your words come from? How long ago — a thousand years? Six thousand? How do they change over time? How are they related to other languages? What do Joseph Green and Giuseppe Verdi have in common? How have our consonants changed over time? Why do English, Scots and Welsh speak different languages? Why do some ancient words in Urdu or Hindi resemble English equivalents? And what did Jacob Grimm contribute to the study of words besides collecting ‘fairy tales’ like Cinderella and Snow White?

We begin with a page of everyday words as they were about a thousand years ago, some very much changed and others not, then a little story in the words of that era — and then another in Dutch,and so on. ( — I expect ‘manky’ has disappeared but I found it traced back a few thousand years and arrived via French manquer and Italian mancare: to be lacking).

Then there’s the Vikings; the French influx; a look at words that have come right down from Proto-Indo-European; Latin and Greek (surprising how many kids know a word like defenestration!) and eventually a silly story full of words from all over the world that have found their way into English.

This event will be held in the meeting room on the lower floor of Johnsonville library from 1.30-3.30pm

Children need to bring pen/pencil and paper, plus a device if they have one (ipad, laptop etc - not compulsory, but useful. The library has free wifi).

Jenny has kindly offered us a second session if there is interest.

For any queries, please contact Jules Hyde 0211642552