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English Begins at Jamestown
Narrating the History of a Language
Tim William Machan
29 September 2022
ISBN: 9780198846369
272 pages
Hardback
234x156mm
In Stock
Price: £25.00English Begins at Jamestown explores how people tell and have told the story of English, from its Indo-European origins to its present-day status as a global language. It shows that there are better, worse, and wrong ways to relate the language's history, even if there cannot necessarily be one correct way.
Description
English Begins at Jamestown explores how people tell and have told the story of English, from its Indo-European origins to its present-day status as a global language. It shows that there are better, worse, and wrong ways to relate the language's history, even if there cannot necessarily be one correct way.
- Provides a detailed account of the effect of narrative choices on histories of English
- Written in a clear and accessible style that defines linguistic terminology in context
- Draws on a wide range of historical and theoretical sources and original research
- Reveals the social and political consequences of how language history is written
About the Author(s)
Tim William Machan, Mary Lee Duda Professor of Literature, University of Notre Dame
Tim William Machan is Mary Lee Duda Professor of Literature at the University of Notre Dame. He has published widely on historical linguistics, multilingualism, reception, and textual criticism, and on medieval English, Norse, and French literature. His previous books with OUP include Language Anxiety: Conflict and Change in the History of English (2009) and What Is English? And Why Should We Care? (2013; paperback 2016).
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
1:Writing the history of English
2:Theocratic linguistics
3:Using English
4:Families and friends
5:A grammar of change
6:When speakers make the difference
References
Index
Reviews
"Tim Machan's book is a much-needed exploration of the stories that we tell ourselves about the history of the English language. Fascinating, engaging, and original, this work ranges across centuries of the linguistic past, providing important historiographical analysis and inviting us to think in new ways about the field and practices of English language history." - Colette Moore, University of Washington
"English Begins at Jamestown is an original and thought-provoking take on how to write the history of English. With wit and verve it explores the often unspoken intellectual underpinnings of the enterprise and it should be required reading for all those interested in the history of any language." - Paul Russell, University of Cambridge
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