The Stories of English: The Best Introductory History of the English Language

A groundbreaking and entertaining history of worldwide English in all its dialects, differences, and linguistic delights.

“A work of impeccable scholarship." —New York Times

“Informative . . . distinctive . . . a spirited celebration.” —The Guardian

“Simply the best introductory history of the English language family that we have. The plan of the book is ingenious, the writing lively, the exposition clear, and the scholarly standard uncompromisingly high.” —J.M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

In this “well-informed and appealing” work (Publishers Weekly), David Crystal provides a startlingly original view of where the richness, creativity, and diversity of the language truly lies—in the accents and dialects of English users all over the world.

Whatever their regional, social, or ethnic background, each group has a story worth telling, whether it is in Scotland or Somerset, South Africa or Singapore. He reminds us that for several hundred wonderful years, there was no such thing as “incorrect” English—and traces the evolution of the language from a few thousand Anglo-Saxons to the 1.5 billion people who speak it today.

Moving from Beowulf to Chaucer to Shakespeare to Dickens and the present day, Crystal puts regional speech and writing at center stage, giving a sense of the social realities behind the development of English. This significant shift in perspective enables us to understand for the first time the importance of everyday, previously marginalized, voices in our language—and provides an argument too for the way English should be taught in the future.

“Learned and often provocative . . . demonstrates repeatedly that common conceptions about language are often historically inaccurate—split infinitives bothered no one until recently (likewise sentence-ending prepositions).” —Kirkus (starred review)