The Story of English

Predominately a history of the English language, as the title promises, it also offers a fine selection of world history and provided me with some great tips on literature to pursue. I count myself lucky to have found and read a copy of the first edition from the mid-1980s. Later editions are of course more up-to-date (mine has never heard of the Internet), but only my original features the large number of colour photos and maps, etc. I found it very engaging in small doses: I'd read a chapter, read something else, then return. Sometimes it is clear this was published as a tie-in to a televised version, when there's a profile of a person, place or event that is really a digression but must have lent something visual to the program. show more

Chapter One of the first edition describes the 'current' state of English in the world, now a thirty-year-old snapshot. This is the chapter that was most in need of updating as it predates the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It amounts to a pep rally and contains some hubris: the argument that "my language gobbled up and absorbed elements of yours, while yours is infected with influence from mine" is entirely circular and a game of adjectives. It was interesting however to read about the use of English outside of traditionally English-speaking countries, and the context of that use.

Chapter Two is a very good overview of the successive waves of early influence on development of the language: Celts, Anglo Saxons, Christianity, Vikings and the French Normans. Essentially serves as an early history of England. Chaucer is introduced as the first major artist of Middle English after it evolved from Old English. I learned some interesting facts about common surname origins.

Chapter Three puts focus on the Elizabethan age, a golden age for English as it featured Shakespeare and the first English settlements in America. American English received a lot of early influence from other languages: French, native American, and especially Spanish.

Chapter Four corrected my naive misconception that Scots was its own language rather than a dialect. Tucked into this chapter is the story of the first English dictionaries. There's interesting contrast between Scots voluntarily giving way to standard English and what happened in the prior chapter, when English refused to give way to Norman French.

Chapter Five was the Irish story, a sadder one where the native language Irish Gaelic was overcome by English, and not because the Irish wished for it. The good news was that Irish brought much positive influence to English and this melding provided for heralded writers such as Keats and Joyce. Interesting to read about Newfoundland being a lasting haven for Irish Gaelic; I'd known their speech was unique in Canada but not made this connection.

Chapter Six addresses the influence of African languages on English, via pidgin/creole tongues. It follows the thesis that black English influenced white culture, but presents this as controversial in the American south. It was accomplished in large part through music. What I can't get past is the horrible choice of frontispiece - where it should be Frederick Douglas, James Baldwin, or some other heralded writer as was done for previous chapters and those to come, in the first edition we get the propagation of a racist caricature.

Chapter Seven taught me that Noah Webster is largely to blame for the nuisance differences in British/American English. There's an interesting section on Canadian English I didn't entirely agree with, or perhaps it's just that old. The California gold rush lent itself to the surprising uniformity to American English during that country's rapid westward expansion.

Chapter Eight explores the cockney speech of east London, England and how this may have contributed to the modern English spoken in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Chapter Nine is a study of what new languages might possibly be born from English and how this could happen, taking examples from Jamaica, Sierra Leone, India and Singapore.

The epilogue is a nice wrap-up, highlighting modern journalists who continue to decry the manipulation and mutation of the language as they lay claim to some pure standard, in contrast with the book's thesis that language must evolve if it is to survive and no single clear standard for English really exists or can be objectively ranked superior. If I come across a later edition I think I would like to read this portion to see what different summation it makes in light of the electronic communications revolution, during which the medium has evolved even faster than the message. show less

This is an enjoyable survey of the English language from the mid 1980s. It starts with the birth of the language--how the events of the history of the people of Britain (especially all the invasions) served to create a unique branch of the Germanic languages. As the story progresses, the authors then show the modern results of these historical influences, not only in England, but also in all the places where the English people have settled and/or conquered. As this is a companion book to a television program, the book is amply illustrated and fairly easy to read. There are many points when I could visualize (auralize?) how the TV series must have presented the same information. It would be interesting to read/see an update, to see if show more there have been any noteworthy developments in the past 25 years.
--J. show less

I don't have any particular skill in languages, the entire french department went to the principal of my school and said 'find something else for him to do'. But if you have ever traveled in Canad and the US and have had any ear for the variations in language, this book will fascinate you. For example, it traces the Texan drawl back through the southern states, up through Boston bouncing off Newfoundland back to the "Scot-Irish" area of Brittan. Definitely worth the read

2805 The Story of English, by Robert McCrum - William Cran - Robert MacNeil (read 29 Nov 1995) This is a 1996 book put together to correlate with a TV series. It did not intrigue unfailingly. I have much interest in language, but I feel strongly that people should be able to communicate more readily--so I favor languages dying and language becoming more uniform. One would think with the ease of communication and TV this would be happening. But this book makes clear that brands of English are developing everywhere. I hate Scots dialect, but there are people trying to save it. English spoken in Jamaica is unintelligible to us. So I am not encouraged after reading this book.

A highly readable overview of the history of the language, and of the way in which it has developed in various English speaking countries. Based on a PBS series, this has lots of nice maps and pictures, which is fun. As a history of the language, however, it is not nearly as compelling as several other works -- including Crystal's "The Stories of English".

The authors do their best to make the history of the formation of Modern English interesting and exciting. For the most part, they accomplish their goal. And what they lack in intensity, they make up for in information. It is an exceptionable goal to contain the language in a single volume, and they’ve needed two revisions to do it. That there is not a third is testament to their achievement. A solid book with little flaw.

The Story of English is titled about as literally as it comes. It is the story of the English language from its beginnings back in the middle ages to the current year of 1986(to the book). So it covers different areas and places that came into contact with the budding English language, and different events that shaped it. For instance, I learned that William the Conqueror was from Norman France, and wanted French to be the language of the educated and cultured. However, within a few generations English bumped back into play and was used again. That was pretty interesting.

The book is split into several chapters, with each chapter talking about a specific area or time period. They devote a great deal of space to American English, but they show more also talk about the Celts, the Scots, the Vikings, and all of them. You know, how they borrowed constantly to expand the vocabulary and all of that.

The last chapters talk about recent developments in English and how other nations might have more English Speakers than England and the United States. So it was covering India, China, other super powers of population... Since English is so widely spread, it is a wise idea to learn it rather than to not.

The Epilogue speaks of English as being an evolving thing, not set in stone, which is good. That means that the language is alive. Although there may be people that look down on new spellings for things and texting and whatnot, it will be there as a way to communicate.

It also touches on something that does bother me somewhat; namely, a great deal of people in other countries are at least bilingual. This is pretty easy to do, since all they have to do is learn English along with their mother tongue. For me though, I would have to choose one language out of hundreds. Well, maybe not hundreds, but several. Off the top of my head, I could try Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Russian or Portuguese. There are just so many choices... I don't really feel like traveling to Spain or Mexico or France, but if I wanted to, I could do so comfortably if I had another language. Or I could speak to immigrants or something. It would be interesting to get another world view, but nope.

Ah well, I would read this book again, since it was pretty interesting and meant to be a companion book to some old BBC or PBS television show/programme. show less