The Stories of English

Creased spine, with fading, foxing to endpapers.

How did a language originally spoken by a few thousand Anglo-Saxons become one used by more than 1500 million people? How have all the different versions of English evolved and changed? When and why did 'thou' disappear from Standard English? Would a Victorian Cockney have said 'observation' or 'hobservation'? Was Jane Austen making a mistake when she wrote 'Jenny and James are walked to Charmonth this afternoon'? This superbly well-informed - and also wonderfully entertaining - history of the English language answers all these questions, showing how the many strands of English (Standard English, dialect and slang among them) developed to create the richly-varied language of today. In this compelling global tour, Crystal turns the history of the language on its head and tells the real stories of English that have never been fully told...