English Language - Resources
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Bibliography
Title
Linked to Abebooks
Author
Comment
A History of the English Language
Baugh & Cable
If you have time for only one book - this is it.
Origins and Development of the English Language
Pyles & Algeo
Slim volume but a great technical primer.
Mother Tongue
Bill Bryson
Written to entertain.
Encyclopedia of the English Language
David Crystal
Comprehensive but poorly organized.
Stories of English
David Crystal
Readable and informative.
Story of English
McCrum, MacNeil & Cran
Basis for the PBS series.
Adventure of English
Melvin Bragg
Basis for the History Channel series.
Albion's Seed
David Hackett Fischer
Cultures brought to America with major British migrations.
English Language
Robert Burchfield
Short and 'different' from other works.
Shakespeare Miscellany
David & Ben Crystal
Mostly trivia - but interesting.
Video Sources
The Story of English (YouTube - there are 9 episodes with 7 parts for each)
Links
Ten Minute History of English
Shakespeare's Idioms
Discussion of Transition from Middle to Early Modern English
UCLA IPA Vowel Chart - with recorded examples
2007 New York Times Article on Global English
New Yorker 10/22/12 Article on Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer
2011 New York Times Article on How Technology is Preserving Minority Languages
Online Etymology Dictionary
Quotations - Samuel Johnson
French as the Mother Tongue in Medieval England
Other
The History of the English Language [sound recording] Lerer, Seth, 1955 -
(Search Austin Public Library, Old Quarry)