The Origins and Development of the English Language [Hardcover]

John Algeo (Author), Thomas Pyles (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 015507055X | ISBN-13: 978-0155070554 | Publication Date: February 25, 2004 | Edition: 5

Updated to reflect current research and rewritten to further enhance the clarity of presentation, the fifth edition of this best-seller continues to take a linguistic-analysis approach as well and focus on the facts of language rather than theoretical approaches.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book presents difficult material clearly and logically. The narrative sections are clear, and when needed, they are followed by good examples... It's an excellent book, and I'm completely satisfied with its pedagogy."

"I have been using Pyles and Algeo for the last several years primarily because of its coverage of sound in Chapter 2, its coverage of semantics in Chapter 10, and its coverage of derivation in Chapter 11. I like that the book covers some of the basics of linguistics in addition to all the usual historical material."

About the Author

John Algeo is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Georgia. He is past president of the American Dialect Society, the Dictionary Society of North America, and the American Name Society. He was an associate editor of the Oxford Companion to the English Language and editor of volume 6 of the Cambridge History of the English Language on English in North America. He was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar and a Guggenheim Fellow at University College London.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing; 5 edition (February 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 015507055X
• ISBN-13: 978-0155070554
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #522,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FASCINATING!, June 29, 2000

By 

Reader (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Origins and Development of the English Language (Hardcover)

Every aspect of the English languageis presented clearly and delightfully. Why does "ea" have three different pronunciations in "dream," "thread," and "great"? How did the Danish conquest of Engliand affect words like "sky" and "egg"? What words did the Roman Latin leave in English? Pyles writes great English himself.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars educational, fascinating, and fun!, November 7, 2003

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Chapulina R (Tovarischi Imports, USA/RUS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Origins and Development of the English Language (Hardcover)

"sklon'yat'... vo vs'ekh pad'ezhakh" -- "to decline (someone) in all the cases", so the Russian idiom goes. To discuss someone at length. Few speakers of modern English would make much sense of that idiom. Yet English was once nearly as inflected as Russian, having in common five of that language's six noun cases: the Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, and Instrumental, each with corresponding pronominal and adjectival declension. Old English nouns had gender, too, and not just masculine and feminine as in the "Romance" (Italic) Languages, but, like Russian, the neuter as well. English verbs once required more complex conjugation, and the subjunctive was used far more extensively than today. Old English structurally resembled modern European languages, and until comparatively recently, even had formal and informal second-person address. The reason for these similarities? Six modern language groups all descended from a common ancestor, Indo-European. They include Indo-Iranian (Farsi, Hindi, Romani), Balto-Slavic (Lithuanian, Russian, Polish), Celtic (Gaelic, Cornish, Welsh), Italic (French, Spanish, Roumanian), Germanic (German, Icelandic, Norwegian), and Hellenic (Greek). English is a sub-group of the Germanic branch. This book is a fascinating technical study of how English developed and changed over the centuries and was influenced by various languages and regional dialects. From Chaucer to Shakespeare to Melville to present, you'll see how English has become simplified yet enriched. Learn the reasons for the varying pronunciations of our vowel combinations and consonant clusters that drive ESL students nuts! This is a scholarly study. But you don't have to be a linguist to enjoy the text. Even the most etymologically "challenged" will easily see some distinctive similarities between Old and modern English and other Indo-European languages. BTW, that Russian idiom? We English speakers would discuss someone "every which way".

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars lovely intellectual writing, wonderful linguistic material, fun to read, August 13, 2006

By 

Barbara Pijan "Uttarabhadrapada4" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Origins and Development of the English Language (Hardcover)

Like Josh, I had to buy this book for the History of English course in the Linguistics dept at Portland State University. My instructor was Prof. Jennifer Mittelstaedt in 2006. Also like Josh, I know this "textbook" is a keeper that will stay in my home library as a professional resource, long after I graduate. Beautifully designed with pretty cover and crisp font/layout. (Expensive, but a nice book that gives pleasure to read & hold.) Organized into easily digestible and somewhat independent sections; the many verb-class & declension tables are clearly explained. Easy to pick-and-choose which chapters to assign, if time constrained. Fascinating historical linguistics & splendid etymologies, presented with surprising humor. The writers' "voice"(s) exude a warm, mature amusement at the vicissitudes of human history - and there is certainly an abundance of vicissitude in the history of the English language! Covers morphology, semantics, syntax, and phonology of OE, ME, EModE & PDE periods. Highly recommended!