The Mother Tongue
Subtitle: English and How It Got That Way
Edition: 2010 ed.
Publisher: Perennial
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 270
ISBN-13: 9781435121683
Copyright date: 1990
Subjects: English language; History
Other titles: The Mother Tongue
Notes: Published by arrangement with HarperCollins Publishers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-255) and index.
Table of contents: title: The world's language; title: The dawn of language; title: Global language; title: The first thousand years; title: Where words come from; title: Pronunciation; title: Varieties of English; title: Spelling; title: Good English and bad; title: Order out of chaos; title: Old world, new world; title: English as a world language; title: Names; title: Swearing; title: Wordplay; title: The future of English.