The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language
Published on 3. May 2023
418 pages
978-5-9614-4462-9 (ISBN)
Description
The English language for the author is an animated being, he considers its history from the first Anglo-Saxons in the early Middle Ages, through the Viking raids, the Norman conquest, the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare, the industrial revolution. Bragg also traces the round-the-world journey made by the English in the wake of British imperialism, accompanying his hero everywhere - to America, and to India, and to Australia. Several chapters are devoted to American English and its development under the influence of a variety of factors - from the travel journals of Lewis and Clark to African dialects brought by slaves. Looking ahead, Melvin reflects on how the literary normative language will be affected by the "other English" used by those for whom this language is a second.
