In order to celebrate words, you sometimes have to look to their roots.
Victoria writer Patrick Friesen has done just that with his new poetry book, Songen.
In Middle English — the English language as it was spoken between the High Medieval Period and the Renaissance — songen means "more than one person singing."
That theme of singing together is prevalent throughout Friesen's new book, which is set to launch May 31 at the Salt Spring Island Library.
The University of Victoria instructor has won and been nominated for many Canadian literary awards for his poetry, essays and plays.
At the launch Friesen will read some of his poetry and explain the meaning behind his archaic writing — a practice that started after he submerged himself in the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, who is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages.
"I got very curious and interested in Chaucer because he was trying to standardize English somewhat," said Friesen.
Many of Chaucer's works are lyrical, as are Friesen's, who used music as an inspiration for Songen's poems.
Constantly developing
Friesen wrote his poems to honour the correlation between early English and Low German and also to examine how the languages have evolved.
The languages are similar because they both come from the root language Saxon.
Friesen used the Old English version of the Lord's Prayer as an example.
"The opening of the Lord's Prayer is Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum. That's English," said Friesen, laughing.
"I love that that language is constantly moving, constantly developing and evolving."
Friesen said his research into etymology brought him to the conclusion that there is no true standardized grammar.
The English language spoken in Great Britain today is full of words that don't make sense in Canada, he said.
The purpose of Songen is to bring together the various ways people speak English all over the world, how they've spoken it in the past, and celebrate the language's adaptability.
There will be an additional book launch in Vancouver June 28.