Customer Reviews

The Story of English

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This book is a very readable and well researched introduction to the history of the English language. It contains a great deal of material about the many varieties of English, including separate chapters on Irish English, Scots English, American English, Caribbean English, and Australian and South African English. The photographs and maps that are featured throughout the book are excellent. The maps provide invaluable insights to the historical processes of change, and the pictures make the history come alive. In some places, it is clear that the book was written as a companion to the TV series, when the narrative takes us to an interview with a dialect speaker and then falls flat. If you have access to the video, the motivation for these interviews is much more clear when you can hear the person talk. This book would be excellent for the general reader; it would also make a good textbook for an introductory course on the development of English.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once remarked of English that it is 'the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.'

The English language is certainly a sea of words and constructs which has been fed into by almost every major language and ethnic tradition in the world. English began as a hodge-podge of languages, never pretending to the 'purity' of more continental or extra-European languages (which, by the by, were never quite as pure as they like to assume).

The book `The Story of English', as a companion piece to accompany the PBS-produced series of the same name, hosted by Robert MacNeil, late of the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, is an articulate, engaging, wide-ranging and fair exposition of an ordinarily difficult and dry subject.

The study of English is difficult on several levels. 'Until the invention of the gramophone and the tape-recorder there was no reliable way of examining everyday speech.' What did English sound like 200 years ago, or 400 years ago? 'English is--and has always been--in a state of ungovernable change, and the limits of scholarship are demonstrated by phrases like the famous 'Great Vowel Shift', hardly more informative than the 'unknown land' of early cartography.'

Of course, written language has until modern times been the limited and limiting commodity of a very small minority of people. The balance between the written and spoken language has a variable history, which can still be seen today (compare the writing of the New York Times against the speech patterns and vocabulary choices of any dozen persons you will find on the street in New York City, and this divergence will be readily apparent).

English has many varieties, and this book explores many of them, explaining that the writings and speech-patterns we see and hear as being foreign are actually English variants with a pedigree as strong as any Oxford University Press book would carry. From the Scots language which migrated to the Appalachian mountains to the Aussie languages adapted to Pacific Islands, to the ever-changing barrow speech of inner London, English speakers have a wide variety of possibilities that no one is truly master of all the language.

`If our approach seems more journalistic than scholastic, we felt this was appropriate for a subject that, unlike many academic studies, is both popular and newsworthy. Hardly a week goes by without a news story, often on the front page, devoted to some aspect of English: the 'decline' of standards; the perils and hilarities of Franglais or Japlish; the adoption of English as a 'national' language by another Third World county.'

English is, for international trade and commerce, for travel, for science and most areas of major scholarship, and many other groupings, the language not only of preference, but of required discourse.

In trying to find the length and breadth of English infusion into the world, past and present, MacNeil and primary authors Robert McCrum and William Cran have produced an engaging history, literary survey, sociology, and etymological joyride. By no means, however, are the major streams of English overlooked in favour of the minor tributaries--Shakespeare warrants most of his own chapter, as is perhaps fitting for the most linguistically-influential of all English speakers in history.

Of course, about this same time, the Authorised Version of the Holy Bible (better known as the King James Version) was also produced, with its own particular genius of language. `It's an interesting reflection on the state of the language that the poetry of the Authorised Version came not from a single writer but a committee.'

There is a substantial difference in aspect of these two works -- whereas Shakespeare had a huge vocabulary, with no fear of coining new words and terms to suit his need, the King James Bible uses a mere 8000 words, making it generally acceptable to the everyman of the day. `From that day to this, the Shakespearian cornucopia and the biblical iron rations represent, as it were, the North and South Poles of the language, reference points for writers and speakers throughout the world, from the Shakespearian splendour of a Joyce or Dickens to the biblical rigour of a Bunyan, or a Hemingway.'

From Scots to Anglesey, from the Bayou to the Barrier Reef, English is destined to be a, if not the, dominant linguistic force in the world for some time to come, particularly as the internet, the vast global communication network, is top-heavy with English, albeit an ever changing variety.

Revel in the glories of the English language, and seek out this fun book. Everyone will find something new.

I first discovered this book at a local library's used-book sale. I found it fascinating and informative. As an elementary schoolteacher, I have used portions of it for reference and lessons. In this nation of immigrants, anyone with even a mild interest in language will find this book highly entertaining and educational!

I read this book back in my 'English Conversation Teacher' days in Japan. Having been embrassed one to many times by students having to lecture me, their teacher, on the history of English, I figured I should do some 'catch-up reading.' I asked around for suggestions and was recommended 'The Story of English'.

It is free of the linguistic jargon most general readers would find pedantic, and although it is aimed at the general reader it is never condescending. The first half of the book explains the historical development of English while the second half focues on modern English.

Most refreshing though, is that it is free of the triumphalism found in many books of this kind. Reflecting the demographic reality of English today, it gives even-handed attention to the many contemporary varieties of English spoken around the world in places such as North America, Singapore, India, the Anglophone West Indies, and so on.

'The Story of English' is best suited to those who are curious about the origins as well as the future of English, and who want an easy-to-understand introduction to the subject.

I bought this book on a whim, and then spent the next two days finishing it, cover to cover. It was the most engrossing non-fiction book I have ever read. Of course, it helps to have an interest in the subject matter.

This wonderful all encompassing work traces the roots of English to the final spread of English as the language of the world, the language of air traffic and of international dialouge. This tour de force looks into the roots of English as it came from Germany, explaining how England survived the Latin onlaught of the Romans and how english developed, replacing the Welsh dialects and coming to dominate the British isles.
Then the book turns to the creation of the British empire and the export of English to South Africa(where it was a unifying language) to India(where likewise it unified) and Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and the Americas.

This fascinating book includes may maps, even explaining such dialects as 'cockney' and tries to describe the various accentsthat developed among AMerican blacks and Australians. Many subjects are tackled in a fast paced easily understood, but fact packed manner. Almost everys egment of the English language,from borrowed words to exported words is covered,including attempts to refine English, the growth and preeminance of American English and the attempts of other languages like French to rid themselves of English words.

A must read for anyone who has some spare time and wants a good read.

Seth J. Frantzman

Amazon found some tough reviewers for this book. After reading it last year, I find myself citing it in conversation almost weekly. It could benefit from some editing, but even in current form should be a required read for anyone interested in English (or the history of UK/Ireland).

This is a wonderfully readable overview of the history of the English language, but very indepth as well. I highly recommend it. Perhaps the only problem with it is its size, but this allows for great maps and photos which help you follow along with the text. The greatest thing about it is that it isn't just a story of English, but of "Englishes."

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the English language and it's orgins. As an English teacher I have found the book to be a usefull reference and teaching tool. The book is also written clearly and in lay language so anyone can understand it.

This book is as a companion to the PBS series of the same name. However, reading it without watching the series can make the book dull in places. The authors interviewed people with various English accents/dialects and put the interviews in the book, but I found it difficult to get the sense of the accent by reading and thus I skipped over various tracts of the book. The book was, however, very strong in showing how the English language spread around the world. The story of English is the story of exploration and wars, and this the book did very well. The maps in particular were very useful. Although the book was enjoyable to read, the version I read was published in the 1980's and is now dated, although I can't comment on later editions. My recommendation is that the book is valuable as a history story of the spread of English but without the companion series loses much of its value. If your expectations of the book are not that high, then you might be happy with it.