Introducing the History of the English Language

This essential new text provides a comprehensive, modern account of how the English language originated, developed, changed, and continues to morph into new forms in contemporary society. Introducing the History of the English Language first offers a rigorous, approachable introduction to the building blocks of language itself and then traces English language usage-s messy development in society, beginning with its origins in the Indo-European language family and continuing chronologically through the Old, Middle, Modern, and present-day forms.

Seth Lerer deftly tells this story not as a tale of standards and authority but of differences and diversity. He draws on public and private literary sources from different regions and those in different social classes, highlighting sources from women and people of color - and introduces readers to the effects of technology on English, and the politics of dialect and racial, gender, regional, and class identity ac