The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language

Beautiful volume… paperback but elegant and worthy of a permanent library…David Crystal is fast becoming one of my favorite authors on ANY subject, although his is the beauty and dignity of the English Language.The book, by the way, arrived more quickly than expected, in perfect condition….Thank you, Bookseller..Thank you Amazon.NMB

This is a fascinating book describing the evolution of the English language. It's format is somewhat like an encyclopaedia; it is not structured like a history book. Well-illustrated. Recommended to me by the chairman of a graduate English department of a large US university. I've given a few copies to colleagues.

Good introduction to linguistics, overall, and the study of the English Language, in particular. Crystal covers the development of human language, starting with the sound producing organs and the range of sounds that humans can make, then goes into the development of the language(s) of Great Britain starting with the earliest known inhabitants, progressing through successive invasions, mass borrowings as England became the world's pre-eminent power, and then the continuing development of English as a universal language for science, business and general use as a "high status" language. He also devotes a good amount of space to exploring dialects, accents, pidgins and creole languages. As he notes, a linguist does not judge whether a particular usage is "correct." Rather, the linguist merely studies and reports on how a language is being used by its speakers.

David Crystal has written a comprehensive overview of English. This book is both informative and entertaining.

Sold by: WilyShopper Great Second Hand Purchase

Brilliant, everything that I wanted to explain English to my ESL students. I read the whole book like a novel.

I got this book for a university class and the book content is good however there were pages missing that I needed for the readings and assignments. I went through the whole book checking each page to ensure they were all there once I found one missing that I needed. It was only 4 pages yet that is 4 pages of information that I am missing.

Great book but there is one glaring issue. I was reading a section/chapter called "Old English" on p. 8, got to the very bottom of the page, halfway through the sentence...and you can never find where it starts again. The rest of that section is gone! Sad...