William A. Kretzschmar, Jr is the Harry and Jane Willson Professor in Humanities at the University of Georgia, and also has an appointment at the University of Oulu, Finland. He is Editor of the American Linguistic Atlas Project, the oldest and largest national research project surveying how people speak differently across the country, and has provided American pronunciations for the online Oxford English Dictionary and other dictionaries in the Oxford US Dictionaries program. In 2014 he held an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Digital Innovation fellowship, during which he developed a computer simulation to model language change. Recent works include The Routledge Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English (2017) with Clive Upton, and Exploring Linguistic Science: Language Use, Complexity, and Interaction (Cambridge, 2018) with Allison Burkette.

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Presents a beginner's introduction to the history of the English language, incorporating complex systems, the scientific model behind human speech.

Résumé
A step-by-step introduction to the history of the English language that teaches both students and instructors about complex systems, the scientific model behind human speech. This easy-to-follow text includes chapter openers, key terms, chapter summaries and end-of-chapter exercises, as well as online resources and audio samples.

Contenu

Introduction; 1. Popular English: what we think we know; 2. Emergence; 3. Indo-European; 4. Origins of English; 5. Old English; 6. Early Middle English; 7. Late Middle English; 8. Early Modern English; 9. Modern English; 10. Contemporary English; 11. Standard English; 12. The future of English; Appendix 1. Terms and concepts for studying the English language: expression of words with sounds; Appendix 2. Terms and concepts for studying the English language: beyond expression to content; Appendix 3. Words in use: meaning and corpora.