Stories Of English

Crystal, David

£12.99

Crystal offers the reader with not only the authoritative history of standard English, but also narrates the stories of the dialects of English, showing how they influenced the development of standard English. Numerous panels describe word histories and look in detail at specific idiosyncracies.

Peek Inside

Available on backorder

Publish Date: 05/05/2005
ISBN: 9780141015934 Category: Tag:

Description

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.

Additional information

Weight 397 g
Dimensions 197 × 130 × 26 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

584

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

420.9 (edition:22)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K