| Good morning, Hanna. Thanks for coming in. |
| How was your holiday? |
| It was very good, Professor, thanks. |
| A week in the Appalachians is really therapeutic. |
| Nothing to do but eat, sleep, and listen to nature. |
| It's beautiful up there in the spring, |
| the countryside is so green, |
| and the people are so friendly and laid back. |
| A good place to unwind. |
| I envy you. |
| I've just got too much to get done to get away at all now. |
| I must get this book finished, |
| for one thing, my publisher's getting impatient. |
| I've outlined the last two chapters, though, finally, |
| so it won't take me too much longer, I hope. |
| Maybe I'll be able to go somewhere at Christmas. |
| But, um, what I wanted to talk to you about is our syllabus for this term, Hanna. |
| I know this is short notice, |
| but I'd like to make a couple of little changes to it. |
| Uh oh! I know your idea of "little" changes! |
| No, no, I don't think it'll be that bad this time. |
| What I'd like to do is, uh, cut Lectures Two and Three, |
| the ones on Old English and Middle English, |
| down to half their length and then meld them together into a single lecture. |
| Then, with that extra ninety minutes, |
| I want to add a lecture at the end on World Englishes. |
| I think it's time we dealt with that more thoroughly, don't you? |
| Yes sir, I certainly do. That's a good idea. |
| So I guess I just need to cut down the quizzes to match |
| and add a new one for World Englishes. |
| Do you know when I'll be able to see your revised OE and ME notes? |
| I've already done a good bit of that revision, Hanna, |
| and I think I'll have them ready for you before Lecture One. |
| That's April 8th, I think? |
| Yes, Tuesday the eighth. |
| I've taken the segments on pronunciation out, |
| I think we can lose those easily enough. |
| Nobody really needs to recite "Beowulf" or the "Canterbury Tales" any more, |
| no matter how much fun it is. |
| And that means you probably won't be discussing orthography much either? |
| I suppose not. |
| I just want to be sure to point out clearly the main ways in which Modern English has developed from its predecessors. |
| You know, the Great Vowel Shift, and so forth. |
| Saving ninety minutes is not going to commit Old and Middle English to total oblivion, after all. |
| Not if you can help it, certainly! |
| So I can eliminate the phonetics quiz completely, then? |
| Yes, I think so. |
| I'll still give them a reading so they can get a flavour of their ancestral tongue, |
| but they can get as much of the phonetics as they want out of the textbook, |
| and it's rote learning anyway, really. |
| Now, what about your new lecture, then? |
| Can I get started on any of that? |
| Yes, that's where I could really use your help in the next couple of weeks. |
| I need you to research 'pidgins and creoles' for me. |
| I've never paid enough attention to them, |
| and I'd like an idea of the number there are, |
| their distribution, and uh, what linguists are saying about them these days, |
| are they English dialects? Derivative languages? What? |
| See if you can find some interesting examples and some specific quotes, will you? |
| Yes, of course. |
| I think I know the kind of thing you're looking for. |
| I'll take a look for internet sources this afternoon and then see what the library has later. |
| Thank you, Hanna, I'd appreciate that. |
| And while you're there, |
| would you see if they've got a copy of Burnley's source book on the history of English? |
| I can't seem to find mine. |
| Oh. Uh... that's because you lent it to me last term... |
| and erm, I haven't returned it yet. |
| Ah. Well. Get it back to me sometime soon, then, will you? |
| I need to refer to it for my revisions. |
| Yes sir, of course. |
| Anything else on the syllabus? |
| Just that we'll need the student handout revised to reflect the changes. |
| Who was in charge of that last time? |
| The department secretary has the file. |
| I'll draft a revision, let you check it, and then give it to her, shall I? |
| Shouldn't take long, and we just need to get photocopies before the first class. |
| All right, I'll leave that in your hands too then, Hanna. |
| Just let me know if you need anything. |
| And I'll see you at the faculty meeting tomorrow afternoon. |
| Oh, yes. Yes. The faculty meeting. |
| Oh, and if you need any anecdotes on Appalachian English dialect, |
| I'm your girl, I've just picked up a wealth of contemporary examples! |
| I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Hanna. |