From Old English to Standard English: A Course Book in Language Variation Across Time

By Dennis Freeborn

Book Overview

This practical and informative course book is a fascinating, visual volume which leads the student through the development of the language from Old English, through Middle and Early Modern English to the establishment of Standard English in the eighteenth century.
At the core of this substantially expanded second edition lies a series of nearly 200 historical texts, of which more than half are reproduced in facsimile, and which illustrate the progressive changes in the language. The book is firmly based upon linguistic description, with commentaries which form a series of case studies demonstrating the evidence for language change at every level - handwriting, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, grammar and meaning.
Such a wealth of texts, as well as the structured activities and the various case studies, allow the volume to be used not only as a stimulating course text, guiding students through the analysis of data, but also as a comprehensive resource book and invaluable reference tool for teachers and students at all levels.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0776604694
• ISBN13: 9780776604695
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
• Length: 479 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent hands-on approach

Freeborn's book presents a very useful hands-on approach to the evolution of the English language. He provides lots of REAL texts (including many in facsimile form) in the various dialects of Old English, and so on. At once, the reader feels that the subject is not really as remote as he or she might have imagined. This makes the book very useful as a textbook or a source book for a course introducing students to the history of the English language. I have just received a flyer announcing the arrival of an expanded second edition (due mid 1998), and am therefore looking forward to reading it.