Manyebook

The Stories of English

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.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 592
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 978-0-14-101593-4
  • EAN
  • 9780141015934
  • Release date
  • 2005