One reason I love writing is because I love playing with the language itself. I enjoy finding that perfect word, twisting it in a strange way, or otherwise crafting something original. English is amazingly maliable, and is constantly incorporating new words and evolving how old ones are used. It’s been like this throughout its history, with even the standardization of spelling being a fairly recent development.
If you share my interest in the wordification of English, I strongly encourage you to watch this great video series from the Open University on the History of English. There are ten videos, each over a minute long, spanning from the Anglo Saxon invasions through English’s evolution as a global language.
The first video is below, and the rest of the fabulous History of English series is on OU’s YouTube channel.