From old English to standard English : a course book in language variation across time

Included Index.

Preface to the Second Edition - Acknowledgements - Texts and Facsimiles - Symbols - Introduction - The English Language is Brought to Britain - Old English (I) - Old English (II) - From Old English to Middle English - Early Middle English; 12th Century - Early Middle English; 13th Century - Northern and Southern Texts Compared - The 14th Century; Southern and Kentish Dialects - The 14th Century; Northern Dialects - The 14th Century; West Midlands Dialects - The 14th Century; East Midlands and London Dialects - Chaucer's Rhymes as Evidence of Changes in Pronunciation - Early Modern English I; The 15th Century - Early Modern English II; The 16th Century I - Early Modern English III; The 16th Century II - Early Modern English IV; The 17th Century I - Early Modern English V; The 17th Century II - Modern English - The 18th Century - From Old English to Modern English; Comparing Historical Texts - Postscript I; To the Present Day - Postscript II; English Spelling Today; A Summary - Postscript III; The Development of Present-Day English Spelling; A Summary - Bibliography - Index

A visual volume which traces the development of the language from Old English, through Middle and Early Middle English to the establishment of Standard English in the 18th century. The core of the book is a series of nearly 200 historical texts, of which more than half are reproduced in facsimile, exemplifying the progressive changes in the language. The book is firmly based upon linguistic description, with commentaries forming a series of case studies which demonstrate the evidence for language change at every level - handwriting, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, grammar and meaning.