The Oxford History of English

Description

Lynda Mugglestone's hugely popular The Oxford History of English is republished in a reset and revised edition featuring David Crystal's new take on the future of English. With impeccable and approachable scholarship, it describes the changing sounds, words, and meanings of English. A book for everyone interested in the language.

• Most up-to-date readable and authoritative single-volume history of English
• Covers all the varieties of English throughout the world
• Traces English back to its Indo-European roots
• Reset and revised edition competitively priced below all its rivals

New to this edition

• Chapter featuring David Crystal's new take on the future of English in the wider world

About the Author(s)

Edited by Lynda Mugglestone, Professor of History of English, University of Oxford, and Fellow and Tutor in English at Pembroke College

Lynda Mugglestone is Professor of History of English at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor in English at Pembroke College. Recent books include Dictionaries. A Very Short Introduction and, edited with Freya Johnston, Johnson's Pendulum, both published by Oxford.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A History of the English Language, Lynda Mugglestone
1:Preliminaries: before English, Terry Hoad
2:Beginnings and Transitions: Old English, Susan Irvine
3:Contacts and Conflicts: Latin, Norse, and French, Matthew Townend
4:Middle English - dialects and diversity, Marilyn Corrie
5:From Middle to Early Modern English, Jeremy Smith
6:Restructuring Renaissance English, April McMahon
7:Mapping Change in Tudor English, Terrtu Nevalainen
8:The Babel of Renaissance English, Paula Blank
9:Speakers and Writers of Eighteenth-century English, Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade
10:English in the Nineteenth Century, Lynda Mugglestone
11:Modern Regional English in the British Isles, Clive Upton
12:English Among the Languages, Richard W. Bailey
13:English World-wide in the Twentieth Century, Tom McArthur
14:Into the Twenty-first Century, David Crystal
TImeline
Table of Phonetic Equivalents
Glossary
References
Contributors
Acknowledgements
Index

Reviews

"For a scholarly book pursuing English from its hazy origins to the internet, this book provides much pleasure." - The Independent

"The Oxford History of English, in sum, is an important and exhilarating new resource, not only for scholars and graduate students of literature and language, but also for the interested lay reader." - Heather C. Easterling, Modern Language Review