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Non-Fiction, Languages & Reference, English Language, Dictionaries & Reference, Linguistics & Language Studies

The Stories of English

David Crystal (author)

Paperback Published on: 05/05/2005

£16.99

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Synopsis

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.