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.
Read More
Crystal (honorary, linguistics, U. of Wales-Bangor) has written widely on language in general and English in particular. He begins here by tracing the history of how Standard English came to be the privileged tongue it is. Then he recounts the stories of the other facets of the language over the past 1,500 years, which are rarely told. His topics include the Celtic language puzzle, understanding Danes, a trilingual nation, where the -s ending came from, avoiding transcriptional anemia, the case of y'all, and dialect in Middle Earth. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Read Less