The Stories Of English, by David Crystal

Retrieved from: my library
(1585676012), 2004
Suggested by: Nathan Bierma and the Hat
My Ratings: 10 Merit, 6 Interest, 4 Fun

Whew! Nearly 600 pages of history of how we talk! Sounds like heaven to me! And it was pretty interesting, although I've discovered that I'm much more interested in Old English than Middle or last century English. Modern dialects interest me too. I should have just skipped the middle of this book, since I got bogged down and ended up flipping guiltily through 4 chapters anyway!

This is really detailed. If you haven't got a clue who Bede was or why he matters (which, after last summer thank God, I do), it may behoove you to find out. No mental picture of the shape of English history would be problematic too, as would a lack of recognition of writings such as Morte D'Arthur and Sir Gawain, and anything by Chaucer.

The surprising thing about the more modern information was how non-prescriptive Crystal is. I supposed that shouldn't surprise me: people in the field tend to be a little calmer about changes in language than people like Safire and his ilk who want rules kept because "it's always been done that way." Except, of course, it hasn't: viz. Shakespeare, Austen, Chaucer, Swift....

My only real problem with the book, besides it's length (and I'm not actually complaining--it's a long subject!) is that Crystal sort of promises to talk about the language outside of England, yet his longest section on American English is about the word y'all. Now, I like that word, and use it a lot (and I think he's got it backwards and is missing several points in his discussion of it, but never mind), but that's hardly the only Americanism to spend 5 pages on! [And yes, I know I ended a sentence with a preposition; he says it's ok. Besides, I'm in good company...see list above...].

As for dialects outside of England and America, we barely know they exist: Australia? India? Africa? Mentioned, but briefly. Maybe I need to read a book on the language that was written in each geographical area. I don't know how to get the sense of the language's differences if you don't actually 'speak' South African or New Zealander.

Cavil as I may though, I'd still buy this if I wanted a good resource on what was going on in the English language in, say, 1580, relative to something I was reading from before or after that era. It's completely accessible and has lots and lots of charts and examples to help outsiders along.