The English Language

Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics

by Charles Laurence Barber, Joan C. Beal, Philip Shaw

This bestselling text by Charles Barber, with updating contributions from Joan C. Beal and Philip A. Shaw, recounts the history of the English language from its remote ancestry to the present day. Using dozens of familiar texts, including the English of King Alfred, Shakespeare and Chaucer, the English language is explored in terms of where it came from, where it is going and the global impact it has had, taking into account the many varieties of English that now exist. Stimulating and interesting, it is not only written for specialists on language and linguistics, but also for general readers who take an interest in the subject.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, History, Language, School, Reference, Academic

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 28, 1993

Reviews

[César Lasso · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book I have read about the history of the English language this year, both in a row, and now, having just arrived to the end, I have to write that I absolutely adored it. The first one on this subject – A Social History of English, was excellent (actually, I rated it with five stars), so at the beginning I had to read a few facts I already knew in this second dip into language history. Half way through, I thought this time I would give it only four stars. But, as I went on reading, this new book started picking my interest, and I have to acknowledge I have learnt many new things. Both works are complementary and if you liked one, you should also try the other.

I am a linguist, but so far I had only studied the history of Spanish and Arabic at university (my degree is in Arabic Philology). I read a short book on the history of Portuguese some ten years ago, which I also enjoyed. I’m learning history of English on my own, but I am becoming an autodidact on the subject, fuelled by my enthusiasm.

I bought A Social History of English in paperback from Amazon and after finishing it a couple of months ago, I googled a little bit for further information on the subject. And – what a surprise, in a few seconds, the search engine presented me with what seemed to be a whole book in PDF. And it was! Excited, I downloaded this fantastic 300-page piece of writing I am now reviewing. It was so fast, without visiting dubious sites, and the PDF was so well formatted that I think it is the University of Cambridge itself that made the read available for free. How kind of them.

The list of interesting things I have learnt would be very long. I’ll tell you a pair I particularly enjoyed: the description of world varieties of English and, toward the end, the present day evolution of the language (because language never stays paralysed unless it has died out like classical Greek or Latin). A language evolves in the hands of its users). My mother tongue is Spanish, but I learnt English very early. When I was fifteen, my family returned to Spain, so from that age, I used more Spanish than English for daily needs and conversation (and then learned new languages and lived in Portugal for ten years). Now that I am 55, I am perfectly aware that my English is a bit of a fossil. I read ‘poor’ as ‘puer’, while I think many people in the British Isles (or Hiberno-British Isles, my coining for those islands in acknowledgement of the lovely experiences I lived in Ireland) now pronounce it as ‘paw’.

For the time being, and well after midnight, I’ll call this a review. Please feel free to comment on it – it might (a modal form apparently disappearing nowadays in Britain) give me new ideas to improve this modest commentary.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great fun if you're a language geek. Maybe even if you aren't. Barber goes through all the major stages of English's development, talking about sound, vocabulary and grammar change in what was just the right amount of detail for a general introduction. The one drawback, as an American, is that his reference point for modern pronunciation is British so sometimes his examples are a little difficult to imagine.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of interesting information packed within this book, don’t get me wrong, but the writing itself left a lot to be desired at times. That said, I do have to admit that it’s not the worst reference book I’ve read.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: A Historical Introduction aims to cover the development of our speech over as wide a span as possible, from the murky past of the ancestral Indo-European language to the present day. Charles Barber was responsible for the first edition of 1993, but for this second edition Joan C. Beal and Philip A. Shaw have made some revisions and added an entire new chapter on Late Modern English. The book is targeted towards speakers of UK English, as many of the examples and the description of sound changes assumes a knowledge of that variant particularly.

This book is a mess. The authors want to tell a story in a friendly manner, but first they spend over 50 pages of a 300-page book describing the basics of linguistics (phonology, syntax, language change). This will scare away readers wanting a friendly introduction, and for readers wanting a more meaty text these linguistic concepts are presented in far too sketchy a fashion to really prepare them for serious study. After that introductory chapter, the actual description of English over time is little more than the authors throwing out trivia without forming a coherent, smoothly flowing text. It feels like something cobbled together.

The chapter on Late Modern English is interesting. While anyone can notice that e.g. Jane Austen was writing from a different time due to her quaint vocabulary, I had never noticed some syntactic changes that had occurred in English only after her time. Still, there must be better historical introductions to English out there.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of useful information but SO dense, especially at the beginning. Also lots of specialized language that many readers (including myself) will not understand. If the goal is for people to understand the English language, then the language itself in this book is a huge barrier. Needs to be knocked down about 4 notches. Once you get around that — this book contains fantastic information and usually you get a look at things from multiple perspectives. I think the book mostly steers away from prescriptivism, though there are a few moments. And the author speaking British English can make things confusing here and there. But overall it was a useful book.

[Jenna]

I read this book throughout the semester for my philology course. It was not always fun to read and I sometimes dreaded having to open it every week and read another chapter... however! I can now proudly add it to my ‘Read in 2020’ list and idk if that makes it worth it, but I’m gonna say it does anyway.

[James Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was required reading for a class, and I found it to be very enjoyable an informative. It gives an in-depth look at the major changes in the history of English and presents them in an intelligible fashion. The linguistic information is not to technical, so anyone with a basic knowledge of linguistics or grammar will find the content to be interesting. The denser material is dispersed in front of a larger historical time line that keeps the book moving.

[Eric McLean · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first started reading this book I was terrified by the linguistics portion containe din the first 50 pages or so. I have to say that I learned A LOT reading this book. It is very academic and scholarly; unfortunately, it may be a little too scholarly for an undergrad class and I would have appreciated it more if I had been majoring in Linguistics. Overall, a very insightful book.

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book is a guaranteed snooze-fest, the author does have really interesting ideas and explains himself very clearly. It was fun to read when I had enough brain power to really focus. Considering how deathly dull this book *could* have been, it was actually pretty well done.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got just over halfway through this before moving on. Good stuff, but dense. I would need more of a background in linguistics, and facility with IPA, to take full advantage of the text.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

A reasonably good, but dry overview of the history of English. But if you speak American English the examples are hard to follow.

[Gwen Jones-Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covers a large subject well: an excellent introduction.

[Dralex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book highly interesting and informative. If you don't have a particular interest in the history of English, then don't read it. If you don't want to be exposed to some terminology from the field of linguistics, then don't read it. It is not what I'd describe as an "easy" read. I would, however, describe it as rewarding.
I have had a little bit of training in linguistics, and no doubt this helped me in understanding some of the more technical aspects of the book. But one of the things I found tremendously impressive about the book was the clarity of its explanations of technical terms such as vowel (which does not refer to a letter but to a sound, despite the common notion that the vowels are a, e, i, o, and u), voice, and phoneme. I did my linguistics decades ago, so the clarity of the book's explanations was something I valued highly.
My variant of English is Australian. It is true that the book takes English "Received Pronunciation" as the basis for comparison with other forms of pronunciation. I didn't find this problematic; clearly, some other reviewers have. For my part, I found it interesting to be made more aware of how my own accent differs from the RP in various ways.
Prospective readers should also be aware that the book deals with the Indo-European languages as a background to the development of English. Again, some readers may find this dull and unnecessary, but for those with an interest in the history of English in its broadest sense, this material will be significant. It is, moreover, simply a fact that the development of English cannot be described without reference to the Indo-European roots of English.
A number of pages are devoted to discussion of glottochronology. Given that the author(s) conclude by saying "Most scholars doubt the validity of glottochronology" (p74), the amount of attention given to it surprising. Mallory & Adams (The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World) have a very helpful - and scathing - assessment of glottochronology (pp93-96), including the remark, "Glottochronology must be about the only scientific technique where the accuracy of one's results is enhanced by the removal rather than the augmentation of data!" (p95)
The English Language offers a conceptual framework for the appreciation of the development of English, acknowledging different forms of English such as have developed in pidgins and creoles; additionally, it contains a wealth of linguistic minutiae that will be of much interest to those drawn to the history of words. I recommend it to all who have an interest in the history of English and its development.

[Jenna Meadows · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely terrible. Full of misinformation from a disconnected upper-class British man. He states there are no languages that are only written and not spoken. This is false. He makes patronizing statements about the Irish, the Scottish, General American English, and even worst, is blatantly racist in many of his statements. Talks about toxic cultural appropriation like it's a good thing. I read a lot of books this quarter for college, this was by far the worst read.

If you speak anything other than upper-class British Queen's English, this guy stomps on your vocal cords.

[Ron Van Vliet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested to read about the relation between English and its closest relatives Frisian and Dutch. These languages are hardly mentioned in the book. All comparisons of Old English are made with Old High German which was quite distinct from Old English both language and geography wise in stead of Dutch and Frisian.To me it seems that the writer doesn't have any knowledge of these particulair languages. It would be a revalation for him to find out that in some cases modern Dutch and Frisian is equal to Old English.

[Lizzie Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic textbook/scholarly read that takes you from the beginning of language to modern day.
Hefty, long but interesting considering the nature of the book.
Great revision as I come into my final year of linguistics study!

[Sara]

I am so glad to be done with this book so I never have to look at this book ever again.

[pumi · Rating 3 out of 5]

this language can hardly be real

[Freya Munsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

not really as relevant to me as i hoped it would be but still interesting 👍

[Colette]

Really difficult - the historical section is not that hard to understand, but trying to learn to read Old English is like trying to learn to read a completely foreign language. I would not recommend this book unless you have a special interest in Old English.

[Karel Veselský · Rating 4 out of 5]

A textbook on historical development of English. My primary source of exam knowledge, relatively easy-to-follow and comprehensive. The historical stuff described there was also moderately interesting (considering how boring linguistics is).

[Patty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, so I didn't actually finish this one. Life is too short to waste on sub par books. This one is so technical it reads like stereo instructions.

[Sandra]

Good reading if you want to hear the background and why words have appeared in the language also the vowel shifts and language changes.

[[ J o ] · Rating 1 out of 5]

[ to review at a later date - possibly even re-read at a later date as well, though not urgent ]

[Kayla]

loved it

[Ana-Catrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didactic, but interesting nonetheless.

[Radagast]

Love this book!!

[Elaine]

Read for a course on the history of the English language. Dense reading but informative.

[Gabriel Proctor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives a good overview of both the historical and linguistic developments throughout the history of the English language.

[Charlie_Bharlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
As far as textbooks go, this one was easy to read and there was a clear structure which I appreciated