In view of the numerous books that already exist on the subject, it may not be immediately obvious to the layman why scholars should feel the need to continue to write on the history of the English language. However, the flood of writing continues and bears witness to an incessant demand and an unabating interest. As this author demonstrates in his opening chapter, the relevance of English language history is as great as ever, not least as a central key to the understanding of cultural history. In conjunction with two further volumes scheduled to appear at a later date, this volume gives a comprehensive survey of salient aspects of English language history from its embryonic stages to the language spoken today in England and America. The volume spans the period up to 1154, the year which saw the inauguration of the Plantagenet era in England and the last year to be recorded in the annals of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

From Dialect to Standard: English in England 1154–1776 is the second volume of a set of three offering a comprehensive survey of what by the author is seen as the most interesting aspects of the long history of English from its embryonic stages to the language spoken today in England and America.The present book spans the period up to 1776, the year of the American Declaration of Independence and the year in which Adam Smith published his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The title of the first volume from 1998 was The Continental Backgrounds of English and its Insular Development until 1154, the third and final volume being scheduled for publication later under the title The Development of American and British English from 1776 to the Present Day.

This volume collects essays that approach notions of creating, maintaining, and crossing boundaries in the history of the English language. The concept of boundaries is variously defined within linguistics depending on the theoretical framework, from formal and theoretical perspectives to specific fields and more empirical, physical, and perceptual angles. The contributions to this volume do not take one particular theoretical or methodological approach but, instead, explore how examining various types of boundaries—linguistic, conceptual, analytical, generic, physical—helps us illuminate and account for historical use, variation, and change in English. In their exploration of various topics in the history of English, contributions ask a range of questions: what does it mean to set up boundaries between time periods? When do language varieties have distinct boundaries and when do they overlap? Where do language users draw up clausal, constructional, semantic, phonetic/phonological boundaries? Thus, the chapters explore not only how boundaries illustrate synchronic and diachronic features in the history of the English language but also what we can discover by questioning perceived or actual boundaries.

Some of the most important authors in British poetry left their mark onliterature before 1600, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, and, of course, William Shakespeare. "The Facts On File Companion to British Poetry before 1600"is an encyclopedic guide to British poetry from the beginnings to theyear 1600, featuring approximately 600 entries ranging in length from300 to 2,500 words.

The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes constitutes a comprehensive introduction to the study of World Englishes. Split into six sections with 40 contributions, this Handbook discusses how English is operating in a wide range of fields from business to popular culture and from education to new literatures in English and its increasing role as an international lingua franca. Bringing together more than 40 of the world’s leading scholars in World Englishes, the sections cover historical perspectives, regional varieties of English from across the world, recent and emerging trends and the pedagogical implications and the future of Englishes. The Handbook provides a thorough and updated overview of the field, taking into account the new directions in which the discipline is heading. This second edition includes up-to-date descriptions of a wide range of varieties of English and how these reflect the cultures of their new users, including new chapters on varieties in Bangladesh, Uganda, the Maldives and South Africa, as well as covering hot topics such as translanguaging and English after Brexit. With a new substantial introduction from the editor, the Handbook is an ideal resource for students of applied linguistics, as well as those in related degrees such as applied English language and TESOL/TEFL.

So far, no comprehensive study of the obsolescence of Scandinavian loanwords in English has ever been published. This book remedies that situation, and presents an analysis of the causes of obsolescence of Scandinavian loanwords in English since the 15th century. The study has mainly been based on the Oxford English Dictionary and the Middle English Dictionary. Over 300 loanwords have been selected, grouped into semantic fields and analysed. To account for their disappearance, reasons such as the rivalry of synonyms, the exclusive use in local dialects, the disappearance of the referent as well as rare occurrence or phonological changes were investigated.