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1	The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language more books like this by Melvyn Bragg add to wishlist Bragg's landmark history of the English language details how and where it began 1,500 years ago, and how it evolved to become the tongue of two billion people worldwide. see all copies from $2.15! new only from $8.99! \| signed copies \| first editions \| SVS
2	Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English more books like this by John McWhorter add to wishlist A survey of the quirks and quandaries of the English language, this work focuses on its strange and wonderful grammar. Delving into provocative topics and more, "Our Magnificent Bastard Language" distills hundreds of years of fascinating lore into one lively history. see all copies from $3.98! new only from $3.98! \| first editions \| SVS
3	The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way more books like this by Bill Bryson add to wishlist In this informative yet curiously funny book Bill Bryson, of travel-writing fame, tackles the quirks and growing pains of the English language. see all copies from $1.99! new only from $7.98! \| first editions \| SVS
4	The Mother Tongue more books like this by Bill Bryson add to wishlist The author of the acclaimed The Lost Continent now steers us through the quirks and byways of the English language. We learn why island, freight, and colonel are spelled in such unphonetic ways, why four has a u in it but forty doesn't, plus bizarre and enlightening facts about some of the patriarchs of this peculiar language. see all copies from $1.99! new only from $9.00! \| signed copies \| first editions \| SVS
5	Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language more books like this by Professor Seth Lerer add to wishlist Why is there such a striking difference between English spelling and English pronunciation? How did our relatively simple grammar rules develop? What are the origins of regional dialect, literary language, and everyday speech, and what do they have to do with you? Based on the enormous success of his video and lecture series and the widespread ... see all copies from $9.45! new only from $13.38! \| first editions \| SVS
6	A Biography of the English Language more books like this by Celia M Millward add to wishlist Appropriate for courses in history of the English language, this text presents language as a complex system of continuing transformation. It links the history of language with the development of English literature through a survey and summary of English around the world. see all copies from $12.78! new only from $43.43!
7	The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins more books like this by Robert Hendrickson add to wishlist This is an updated encyclopedia that explores the origins of thousands of words and phrases.The most comprehensive single-volume reference of its kind, "The Facts On File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Fourth Edition" has been completely updated and expanded and now contains definitions and origins of more than 15,000 words and ... see all copies from $1.99! new only from $19.95! \| SVS
8	A History of the English Language more books like this by Albert Croll Baugh add to wishlist For courses in the History of the English Language (English Composition). Comprehensive and balanced, this classic exploration of the history of the English language combines internal linguistic history and external cultural history--from the Middle Ages to the present. Students are encouraged to develop both an understanding of present-day ... see all copies from $1.99! new only from $23.70! \| first editions \| SVS
9	The story of English more books like this by McCrum add to wishlist This text examines the origins and development of the English language. 2000 years ago, English was confined to a handful of savage tribes on the shores of north-west Europe. Today, in one form or another, it is spoken by a billion people around the world, of whom 350 million use it as their mother tongue. More widely scattered, written and spoken ... see all copies from $1.99! new only from $3.75! \| signed copies \| first editions \| SVS
10	Problems in the Origins and Development of the English Language more books like this by John Algeo, Ph.D. add to wishlist This companion to THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE supplements and enhances material presented in the main textbook. Chapter-by-chapter exercises help students master text material more efficiently. A wide variety of topics, problems, and data gives instructors ample material for class discussion. The wealth of information in ... see all copies from $1.99! new only from $44.92! \| first editions \| SVS
11	The Origins and Development of the English Language more books like this by Thomas Pyles add to wishlist The history of the English language, as seen through the lens of linguistic analysis, takes a theory-neutral stance for graduate and advanced undergraduate studies. Pyles and Algeo present the differences between our present British and American dialects in a scholarly fashion without confining the student to a prerequisite knowledge of ... see all copies from $1.99! new only from $27.71! \| first editions \| SVS
12 view cover	The English Language: A Historical Introduction more books like this by Charles Barber add to wishlist The English Language: A Historical Introduction covers the history of the English language from its remote Indo-European origins to the present day. It provides substantial information about the English language at different periods, and introduces the main theoretical and technical concepts of historical linguistics. Chapters on the nature of ... see all copies from $4.05! new only from $14.16! \| first editions \| SVS
13 view cover	The Story of English: Revised Edition more books like this by Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil, William Cran add to wishlist The renowned and lavishly illustrated history of the evolution of the English language and the companion to PBS's acclaimed series--now completely revised and expanded. "Rarely has the English language been scanned so brightly and broadly in a single volume".--San Francisco Chronicle. Illustrations. see all copies from $1.99!
14 view cover	Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling more books like this by David Wolman add to wishlist Wolman offers an engaging narrative that spells out the history of the English language and the people who have tried to make spelling make sense. see all copies from $4.44! new only from $14.00! \| signed copies \| first editions \| SVS
15 view cover	Wicked words more books like this by Terry Deary, Philip Reeve add to wishlist It's history with the nasty bits left in! Want to know: How to be very rude...without anybody knowing? Some murky Medieval jokes? What to say if someone calls you mundungus, hackum or Jabbernowl? Get your revenge with some really wicked words - even English teachers will be speechless! see all copies from $2.53! new only from $8.66!
16 view cover	English: History, Diversity and Change more books like this by David Graddol add to wishlist 'The book's colourful, varied contents will no doubt attract students of Linguistics, Literature and everyone interested in the English language. The authors have done an excellent job in providing this well researched material and keeping the jargon to a minimum, thus making it accessible to every reader.' - Language International The story of ... see all copies from $3.26! new only from $35.10! \| first editions
17 view cover	The Force of Poetry more books like this by Christopher Ricks add to wishlist Christopher Ricks is one of the best-known living critics of English, and was described by W. H. Auden as 'the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding'. Though published indepenently over many years, each of the essays in this collection of his writings asks how a poets words reveal the 'force of poetry', that force - in Dr Johnson's words - ... see all copies from $21.41! new only from $41.34! \| first editions \| SVS
18 view cover	A Companion to Baugh & Cable's History of the English Language more books like this by Thomas Cable add to wishlist This comprehensive and accessible student workbook accompanies the fifth edition of Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable's A History of the English Language. Each chapter in the workbook corresponds directly to a chapter in the textbook and offers exercises, review questions, extensive supplementary examples, additional explanations and a range of ... see all copies from $3.17! new only from $30.07!
19 view cover	The Word Snoop more books like this by Ursula Dubosarsky, Tohby Riddle (Illustrator) add to wishlist Meet the Word Snoop. She's dashing and daring and witty as can be--and no one knows more about the evolution of the English language than she does. Luckily, she's spilling her secrets in this gem of a book. Illustrations. see all copies from $7.58! new only from $8.50! \| first editions \| SVS
20 view cover	Early Modern English more books like this by Charles Laurence Barber add to wishlist Now available in a completely revised edition, this book describes the English language between the years 1500 and 1700 - the different varieties of the language, the attitudes of its speakers towards it, its pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. It will be useful to serious students of the history of English and takes full account of those ... see all copies from $15.95! new only from $46.57! \| first editions
21	Tough, Sweet & Stuffy: An Essay on Modern American Prose Styles more books like this by Walker Gibson add to wishlist see all copies from $13.24! new only from $197.94!
22 view cover	Why Is English Like That"": Historical Answers to Hard ELT Questions more books like this by Norbert Schmitt, Richard Marsden add to wishlist Why is night spelled with gh? Why can't sentences end with prepositions? Why does English have so many words that express the same ideas? Questions like these can be difficult for teachers to answer when they do not know the historical background of the English language. "Why Is English Like That?" gives teachers a brief and accessible history of ... see all copies from $20.00! new only from $34.20! \| SVS
23 view cover	A Linguistic History of English: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic more books like this by Donald Ringe (Editor) add to wishlist This book describes the earliest reconstructable stages of the prehistory of English. It outlines the grammar of Proto-Indo-European, considers the changes by which one dialect of that prehistoric language developed into Proto-Germanic, and provides a detailed account of the grammar of Proto-Germanic. The focus throughout the book is on linguistic ... see all copies from $41.62! new only from $41.62!
24 view cover	The English Language: A Guided Tour of the Language more books like this by David Crystal add to wishlist This is the definitive survey of the English language - in all its forms. Crystal writes accessibly about the structure of the language, the uses of English throughout the world and finally he gives a brief history of English. The book has been fully revised and there is a fascinating new chapter on 'The effect of technology' on the English ... see all copies from $6.37! new only from $10.36! \| SVS
25 view cover	English Past and Present more books like this by Richard Chevenix Trench add to wishlist Abp. Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886) was an Anglican archbishop and poet. While incumbent of Curdridge Chapel near Bishops Waltham in Hampshire, he published (1835) The Story of Justin Martyr and Other Poems, which was favourably received, and was followed in 1838 by Sabbation, Honor Neale, and Other Poems, and in 1842 by Poems from Eastern ... see all copies from $8.00! new only from $11.99! \| first editions \| SVS

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	A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson see all from $1.99! new only from $8.55!
	Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson see all from $1.99! new only from $6.75!
	The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language by Professor David Crystal see all from $1.99! new only from $25.95!
	The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language by Professor David Crystal see all from $1.99! new only from $8.99!
	Dictionary of Word Origins by John Ayto see all from $1.99! new only from $87.95!
	Essays in Appreciation by Christopher Ricks see all from $14.36! new only from $39.75!