I watched Part 3 of Stephen Fry's Fry's Planet Word on ABC 1 last night (this episode is currently available on ABC iView within Australia) which was about the function of swearing in language and how these taboos originate. It turned out to be a fascinating and informative exploration of the development of language, culturally, socially and physically.
Following on from that when I was doing my daily skim of The Passive Voice, the source of much valuable information and news about writing and the business of writing, I found this video where the history of the English language is condensed into ten chapters in ten minutes. Very funny and clever - and, despite many of our obscenities having come from the Anglo Saxon period, they don't talk about the 'naughtier' aspects of language so you can watch it without blushing.
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