The Oxford History of EnglishLynda Mugglestone OUP Oxford, 2012 M11 30 - 624 pages Lynda Mugglestone's hugely popular The Oxford History of English is now updated and entirely reset in a new edition featuring David Crystal's new take on the future of English in the wider world. In accounts made vivid with examples from a vast range of documentary evidence that includes letters, diaries, and private records, fifteen scholars trace the history of English from its ancient Indo-European origins to the present. They cover the language's versions, written and spoken, revel in its rich variety over fifteen centuries, and chart its varied progress nationally, regionally, and throughout the world. With scholarship at once impeccable and approachable, the authors describe and explain the constantly changing sounds, words, meanings, and grammar of English. This is a book for everyone interested in the language, present and past. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 9 | |
Old English | 39 |
Latin Norse and French | 75 |
Dialects and Diversity | 106 |
5 From Middle to Early Modern English | 147 |
6 Restructuring Renaissance English | 180 |
7 Mapping Change in Tudor English | 219 |
11 Modern Regional English in the British Isles | 379 |
12 English Among the languages | 415 |
13 English Worldwide in the Twentieth Century | 446 |
14 Into the Twentyfirst Century | 488 |
Timeline | 514 |
| 530 | |
Websites | 579 |
Notes on Contributors | 580 |
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Common terms and phrases
accents American Anglo-Saxon appears Britain British Caxton chapter Chaucer common corpus cultural Dictionary diphthongs discussed distinct e)th earlier early modern English East England English language English period especially evidence example Fanny Burney fifteenth forms French further grammar haue Indo-European inflections influence instance Irish language contact Lass late late West Saxon later Latin letters lexical linguistic literary loanwords London Lowth manuscript medieval Middle English Midlands monophthongs multilingual nineteenth century non-standard norm North northern noun Old English Old Frisian Old High German Old Norse Ormulum passage person Peterborough Chronicle phonological phonology plural pronoun pronunciation regional Renaissance Sarah Fielding Scotland Scots singular sixteenth century social southern speakers speech spelling spoken standard English Stockwell and Minkova suggests tense texts thou translation twentieth century usage variation variety verbs vernacular vocabulary Vowel Shift West Saxon Western words writing written þat