1. vulgar | Etymology of vulgar by etymonline. (n.d.). Etymonline.

Background: This article explains the etymology of the word vulgar, how it originally meant common but now has a meaning of disgusting and vile.

How I Used It: I plan to use this to explain that the common language was seen as bad, as vulgar has such a negative connotation, but just means common.

2. The Norman Conquest and the English Language: English Meets French. (n.d.). My English Language.

Background: an explanation of the Norman conquest of the English as a result of the battle of hastings, which had a profound effect on the English language due to the merging of French and English people.

How I Used It: I will use this information to explain how the Norman elites saw some of the English language as obscene, and how that view of obscenity stills carries on today.

3. Orlando, A. (2023, September 5). The history of swear words: Where the &%@! do they come from? Discover Magazine.

Background: this article is a general history of swear words from different cultures and time periods, including their origin and nature.

How I Used It: This will be used to explain the origin of swear words from multiple different perspectives of culture, to give an idea of the general pattern around how they form in any given place in the world.

4 Vizarra, I. ( 2019, October 14). Battle of Hastings: The War that Changed the Course of English Language Forever. Medium.

Background: this is another article on the Norman conquest, specifically one that provides more detail about the battle of hastings, as well as Norman and French words that merged into the English language.

How I Used It: This will be used to explain the origin of certain English words, and how that relates to the origin of English curse words, as well as the differences in the language used by the common person and the elites.

5. shit | Origin and meaning of shit by Online Etymology Dictionary. (n.d.).

Background: this one is pretty simple, it’s the etymology of the word shit.

How I Used It: This is a prime example of the banning of supposedly “vulgar” language. Shit was simply the English word for feces, but that was deemed to inappropriate to the Norman elites, so instead I suppose we must say a word that has the exact same meaning but sounds different.

6. AHEF. (2017, March 17). The Reformation Led to the Translation and Printing of the Bible into the Peoples’ Common Languages. American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc.

Background: this article is about how the protestant reformation, which was a re-formation of the old rules of the catholic church, and the invention of the printing press led to the mass production of bibles to be written in the common languages of the time

How I Used It: I explained an instance of oppression in which the catholic church only wrote the bible in Latin, preventing the common person from reading and interpreting for themselves, which was important because at the time the rules of the bible decided the rules of society.

7. Chomsky, N. (1989). Noam Chomsky: upon reflection interview with al page

Background: this is a wide-ranging interview with Noam Chomsky, a revolutionary linguist. it covers several linguistic topics such as its fluidity and natural evolution, how it is naturally developed by toddlers, and misconceptions about dialects.

How I Used It: people often claim that they want a language to be “pure” but according to Chomsky, that doesn’t mean anything. language behaves more like a gradient over, for example, what would pure English be? what we speak is certainly not the same as Shakespearian English, so that argument essentially has no meaning.

8. Dent, S. (2020, October 9). Susie Dent: how English swear words went away from the holy and back to the shit again. inews.co.uk.

Background: dent explains various origins of curse words, such as shit, how “fuck” used to be just improper and not a profanity, and how often times curse words will have religious origins.

How I Used It: I used it to reiterate the origin of the word shit and some of the religious backgrounds of words.

9. Dictionary.com. (2019, August 11). Why Is “Ain’t” Such A Controversial Word? Thesaurus.com.

Background: the word ain’t used to be considered proper English until it was associated with poor people

How I Used It: I showed that there is no reason for some words to be improper, as “ain’t” used to be proper, and was only not considered so as to disassociate from the poorer class, which is an example of nonsensical elitism

10. Johnson, E. O. (2018, August 10). Intriguing and shameful ways Africans were renamed after their capture by slave traders. Face2Face Africa.

Background: this explains how when Africans were forced to the U.S, they were forced into American culture, which includes having to adopt traditional English names

How I Used It: names are part of language, and a part of one’s identity. By having African slaves change their name, it was another aspect of destroying their identity and culture through the use of language oppression.

11. Lyons, D ( 2017, april 19) MSN. (n.d.). Www.msn.com. April 19, 2017

Background: this article is simply about how the percentage of people who speak Spanish in the US is higher than most people think.

How I Used It: I referenced the percentage of people who speak Spanish in the US (12.5%) to explain how despite the relatively large amount of people who speak Spanish, the English dominated society makes it very difficult for people who only speak Spanish to get by, which is a form of language discrimination.

12. Sam Louie MA, LMHC, CSAT | Psychology Today. (n.d.).

Background: Sam Louie is a second-generation Asian American immigrant who had to adopt an American name, and explains how it’s unfair that that must happen to be more accepted in the social scene

How I Used It: This is another example of people having to adopt traditional American names, which is damaging to one’s own culture and identity, in order to fit in with the system that favors the English language and English names.