The stories of English
A history of the English language draws on the diversity of dialects and regional accents around the world, as well as the dialects that appear in a variety of literary classics, to explain the significance of the language
Nonfiction
[viii], 584 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
9781585676019, 9781585677191, 1585676012, 1585677191
55729974
The origins of Old English : the Celtic language puzzle
The Old English dialects : the rise and fall of West Saxon
Early lexical diversity : understanding Danes
Stylistic variation in Old English : grammatical transition
The transition to Middle English : two Peterborough Chronicles
A trilingual nation : Lay Subsidy dialects
Lexical invasions : the first dialect story
Evolving variation : well well
A dialect age : where did the -s ending come from?
The emerging standard : complaining about change
Printing and its consequences : the first English dictionary
Early modern English preoccupations : choosing thou or you
Linguistic daring : avoiding transcriptional anaemia
Dialect fallout : a beggarly portrayal
Stabilizing disorder : delusions of simplicity
Standard rules : glottal stops
New horizons : tracking a change : the case of y'all
Linguistic life goes on : the grammatical heart of nonstandard English
And dialect life goes on : dialect in Middle Earth
Times a-changin'
Appendix: The location of the towns and counties of England referred to in this book