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The Origins and Development of the English Language, Sixth Edition, continues to focus on the facts of language rather than on any of the various contemporary theoretical approaches to the study of those facts. The presentation is that of fairly traditional grammar and philology, so as not to require students to master a new theoretical approach at the same time they are exploring the intricacies of language history. The focus of the book is on the internal history of the English language: its sounds, grammar, and word stock. That linguistic history is, however, set against the social and cultural background of the changing times. The first three chapter are introductory, treating language in general as well as the pronunciation and orthography of present-day English. The succeeding central six chapters are the heart of the book, tracing the history of the language from prehistoric Indo-European days through Old English, Middle English, and early Modern English up to the present time. The final three chapters deal with vocabulary—the meaning, making, and borrowing of words.

This practical series includes a number of specialist titles which help students communicate more effectively. Each book contains over 60 tests and over 500 key words and expressions. They are ideal for class use or self-study.

This book is based upon the doctoral dissertation I wrote at Cambridge, completed in early 1997, and considerably revised since. From those days to the present, many kind and thoughtful individuals have greatly contributed to the process of thought and research that this work has entailed. I owe a debt of deep gratitude to Professor Miles Taylor, of the University of Southampton, who, from my time as a PhD candidate, through the revising of this manuscript for publication, could always be counted upon for insightful counsel and invaluable advice. For all of his help, I am profoundly thankful. I am very grateful to my former supervisor, Dr Gareth Stedman Jones of King’s College, Cambridge, for listening to and critiquing my ideas and arguments, as well as reading the numerous drafts with which I presented him. Gratitude is also owed to Dr Ann Robson, at whose stimulating graduate course at the University of Toronto, the seed of this book was planted and I first became interested in, and in some cases introduced to, many of the people examined within it. From my days at Cambridge, I should like to thank Dr Mike Sewell, Dr Beau Riffenburgh, Dr Derek Beales and Dr Graham Storey, who all provided me with information that I would never have come across on my own. At the University ofWales Swansea, I should like to express my appreciation to my colleagues in the American Studies Department who listened to my paper on this subject and weighed in with their intelligent and perceptive comments. I would especially like to thank Dr Craig Phelan, who has listened to my ideas with a patience that goes beyond the point of collegial courtesy. I am further grateful to the Royal Historical Society for publishing this book, particularly Professor Martin Daunton, Professor Peter Mandler and Mrs Christine Linehan, the executive editor, all of whom have helped improve this work immeasurably. I should also like to thank Bobbie Jo for patiently putting up with this apparently never-ending project. I owe her a major debt of gratitude. It remains to be noted that although this book could never have been started, never mind completed, without the help of everyone named above, they are in no way responsible for any errors or omissions; these are entirely my own. Finally, I should like to thank my parents Dr Neil and Mrs Sheila Campbell, without whose support and attention this book could not have been written. It is to them that this work is dedicated.

Although English as a global language did not appear until 1997, it was actually written in 1995, which in 2002 seems a very long time ago, as far as global linguistic developments are concerned. The 1990s were a revolutionary decade, in that respect, with a proliferation of new linguistic varieties arising out of the worldwide implementation of the Internet, an emerging awareness of the crisis affecting the world’s endangered languages, and an increasingly public recognition of the global position of English. Academic publications relating to this last topic seriously increased in number and weight. The largely article-driven literature of previous decades had typically been exploratory and programmatic, restricted to individual situations, anecdotal in illustration, lacking a sociolinguistic frame of reference, and focusing on the written (and usually literary) language. By contrast, the 1990s saw the emergence of a more comprehensive perspective in which spoken varieties became prominent, there was a real increase in the amount of descriptive data, and attempts were made to arrive at explanations and to make predictions of an appropriately general and sociolinguistically informed character.

This accessible and comprehensive introduction traces the development of the Welsh language from its origins, which extend back at least 2,500 years within Britain, to the present day, when about half a million people around the world speak Welsh. Janet Davies offers a broad historical survey, looking at Welsh-language culture from sixth-century heroic poetry to television and pop music in the late twentieth century. She considers the public status of the language from the Act of Union with England of 1536 to the enactment of the Welsh Language Act in 1993, compares the status of Welsh with that of other minority languages throughout Europe and provides a brief guide to pronunciation, dialect, and grammar.