Research HighlightsContinued Exploration of English from a Historical PerspectiveProf. Ryuichi HottaDepartment of English and American LiteratureApr. 1, 2022
Why is English a global language, and why do different varieties like American and British English exist? Why are there regular and irregular verbs, and why are the pronunciation and spelling of words so often inconsistent? Such basic questions may seem better suited to an English tutoring center, but that is the focus of my research—asking these questions and approaching them from a historical perspective.
My specialization is in the history of the English language, and I have spent much of my career studying problems related to the word forms and spelling of Middle English (1100–1500). Because my field deals with earlier English texts, it may seem quite challenging to most English learners. The English language has indeed gone through significant changes throughout its history, and knowledge of modern English alone is not sufficient to read historical texts.
Furthermore, when dealing with English from a time before it was standardized, you sometimes feel thrown into a world of chaos, with more than 515 different ways of spelling a single preposition such as "through." However, by tracing the language’s lineage back through the chaos, we can answer many of the questions I raised about modern English at the beginning of this essay.
My research starts with simplistic yet fundamental questions and takes a historical approach that descends into the world of chaos. This usually has me struggling to untangle the threads of the language's chaotic history, and when I finally manage to sort them out, I try to explain them in the simplest possible terms.
The questions that sound the simplest are often the hardest to answer, and it is my job to grapple with these complex concepts and try to explain them using straightforward language. I consider it the mission of my research to consider every aspect of the English language to fight the cycle of entropy. That is why I spend my days in search of what at first seem like simple, almost child-like questions. And my biggest source of inspiration is often the discussions and chats I have with my students. The ongoing search for new questions is just as exciting as solving them, and for me, it is the most exciting part of academic research.
(2022/4/1)
