Overview

The Oxford History of English traces the language from its obscure Indo-European roots to its position as the world's first language. In accounts made vivid with examples from an immense range of documentary evidence, including letters, diaries, and private records, fifteen experts describe the history of English in all its versions, written and spoken. They reveal the language's rich and protean variety over the centuries and chart the progress of all its versions, standard, regional, and international. With impeccable and approachable scholarship, they describe and explain its constantly changing sounds, words, meanings, and grammar. This is a book for everyone interested in the English language, present and past.

Full Product Details

Author:   Lynda Mugglestone
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 17.10cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 24.60cm
Weight:   0.860kg
ISBN:  

9780199544394

ISBN 10:   0199544395
Pages:   504
Publication Date:   25 September 2008
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Awaiting stock  

Table of Contents

Introduction: A History of the English Language ; 1. Preliminaries: Before English ; 2. Beginnings and Transitions: Old English ; 3. Contacts and Conflicts: Latin, Norse, and French ; 4. Middle English - Dialects and Diversity ; 5. From Middle to Early Modern English ; 6. Restructuring Renaissance English ; 7. Mapping Change in Tudor English ; 8. The Babel of Renaissance English ; 9. English at the Onset of the Normative Tradition ; 10. English in the Nineteenth Century ; 11. Modern Regional English in the British Isles ; 12. English Among the Languages ; 13. English Worldwide in the Twentieth Century ; 14. Into the Twenty-first Century ; A Chronology of English ; Notes on Contributors ; Acknowledgements ; References ; Index

Reviews

Any mature and intellectually curious reader will find something of appeal in the well-crafted chapters that encompass the entire chonological range from (pre-) Old English to Modern English. The Oxford History of English is the best companion reading for literary scholars, historians, and sociolinguistics; it broadens significantly the extralinguistic information, which often leads to new ways of accounting for language change. --Language

<br> Any mature and intellectually curious reader will find something of appeal in the well-crafted chapters that encompass the entire chonological range from (pre-) Old English to Modern English. The Oxford History of English is the best companion reading for literary scholars, historians, and sociolinguistics; it broadens significantly the extralinguistic information, which often leads to new ways of accounting for language change. --Language<p><br>

<br> Any mature and intellectually curious reader will find something of appeal in the well-crafted chapters that encompass the entire chonological range from (pre-) Old English to Modern English. The Oxford History of English is the best companion reading for literary scholars, historians, and sociolinguistics; it broadens significantly the extralinguistic information, which often leads to new ways of accounting for language change. --Language<br>

Author Information

Dr Lynda Mugglestone is a University Lecturer in English and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. She has published widely on language in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. recent work includes Lexicography and the OED. Pioneers in the Untrodden Forest (Oxford University Press, 2002), 'Talking Proper'. The Rise of Accent as Social Symbol 2nd edn. (Oxford University Press, 2003), and Lost for Words. The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary (Yale University Press, 2004).

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