The English language : a historical introduction

by Charles Laurence Barber

Paper Book, 1993

Status

Available

Call number

420

Series

Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics

Genres

Publication

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Description

The English Language: A Historical Introduction covers the history of the English language from its prehistoric Indo-European origins to the present day. Assuming no previous knowledge of the subject, Charles Barber describes the nature of language and language change, and presents a history of the English language at different periods, dealing with key topics such as grammar, pronunciation and semantics. Where necessary, he introduces and explains the main theoretical and technical concepts of historical linguistics. There are also chapters on English in the scientific age, English as a world language and the future of the language. Charles Barber uses dozens of familiar texts, including the English of King Alfred, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Addison, to illustrate the state of the English language through time in a range of contexts. This is a fascinating book for anyone with an interest in language.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member timspalding

The "pitch" of this book doesn't interest me enough to plough through, frankly. But the warm up—the chapters on linguistics, on Indo-European languages, on the Germanic languages and on the earliest history of the English language are exceptional. I've read a lot of short introductions to

Indo-European linguistics, but few that were finer. It posed and answered a number of questions I'd never before encountered. Here, as with the best non-fiction, one gets the sense the author could write an excellent book on any of the topics he touched on, rather than being a narrow specialist ill at ease outside his specialty.

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LibraryThing member Petroglyph

An exemplary introduction to the history of the English language. It's concise, it ticks off all the important points, and it's written by an authority on the subject.

My main point of critique is that too many pages are devoted to sound laws while too few pages deal with culture and mentality.

Some more illustrations and tables wouldn't have hurt, either. That is offset, though, by the general professionalism throughout, as well as some excellent chapters on Proto-Indo-European and Germanic. Those chapters in particular were a refreshing read, because they managed to convey something of the complexity of the issues without dumbing them down or oversimplifying; they deal very lucidly with obscure-ish matters in ways that feel eye-opening rather than a received summary of long-established scholarship.

There probably exist dozens, if not hundreds of books like this (I myself own several). If your main interest is linguistic, and if you're particularly drawn to the older stages of the language (especially pre-Old English) -- then this book has chapters on offer that outclass its competitors. If not -- this one will do as well as any other, and probably a bit better than most.

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