LEADER 05286nam 2200721 a 450 001 9910451928703321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-231-51076-4 024 7 $a10.7312/lere13794 035 $a(CKB)1000000000475554 035 $a(EBL)908189 035 $a(OCoLC)818855810 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000183171 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12009214 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000183171 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10195156 035 $a(PQKB)10488302 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC908189 035 $a(DE-B1597)459056 035 $a(OCoLC)1013962186 035 $a(OCoLC)1037975467 035 $a(OCoLC)1041974953 035 $a(OCoLC)1043626017 035 $a(OCoLC)979739420 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780231510769 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL908189 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10177989 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL818026 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000475554 100 $a20060918d2007 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aInventing English$b[electronic resource] $ea portable history of the language /$fSeth Lerer 210 $aNew York $cColumbia University Press$dc2007 215 $a1 online resource (320 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-231-13794-X 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 277-287) and index. 327 $aIntroduction: finding English, finding us -- Caedmon learns to sing : Old English and the origins of poetry -- From Beowulf to Wulfstan : the language of Old English literature -- In this year : the politics of language and the end of Old English -- From kingdom to realm : middle English in a French world -- Lord of this langage : Chaucer's English -- I is an Ille a millere as are ye : Middle English dialects -- The great vowel shift and the changing character of English -- Chancery, Caxton, and the making of English prose -- I do, I will : Shakespeare's English -- A universal hubbub wild : new words and worlds in early modern English -- Visible speech : the Orthoepists and the origins of standard English -- A harmless drudge : Samuel Johnson and the making of the dictionary -- Horrid, hooting stanzas : Lexicography and literature in American English -- Antses in the sugar : dialect and regionalism in American English -- Hello, dude : Mark Twain and the making of the American idiom -- Ready for the funk : African American English and its impact -- Pioneers through an untrodden forest : the Oxford English dictionary and its readers -- Listening to Private Ryan : war and language -- He speaks in your voice : everybody's English. 330 $aWhy is there such a striking difference between English spelling and English pronunciation? How did our seemingly relatively simple grammar rules develop? What are the origins of regional dialect, literary language, and everyday speech, and what do they have to do with you? Seth Lerer's Inventing English is a masterful, engaging history of the English language from the age of Beowulf to the rap of Eminem. Many have written about the evolution of our grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, but only Lerer situates these developments in the larger history of English, America, and literature.Lerer begins in the seventh century with the poet Caedmon learning to sing what would become the earliest poem in English. He then looks at the medieval scribes and poets who gave shape to Middle English. He finds the traces of the Great Vowel Shift in the spelling choices of letter writers of the fifteenth century and explores the achievements of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of 1755 and The Oxford English Dictionary of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He describes the differences between English and American usage and, through the example of Mark Twain, the link between regional dialect and race, class, and gender. Finally, he muses on the ways in which contact with foreign languages, popular culture, advertising, the Internet, and e-mail continue to shape English for future generations. Each concise chapter illuminates a moment of invention-a time when people discovered a new form of expression or changed the way they spoke or wrote. In conclusion, Lerer wonders whether globalization and technology have turned English into a world language and reflects on what has been preserved and what has been lost. A unique blend of historical and personal narrative, Inventing English is the surprising tale of a language that is as dynamic as the people to whom it belongs. 606 $aEnglish language$xHistory 606 $aEnglish language$xEtymology 606 $aEnglish language$yOld English, ca. 450-1100 606 $aEnglish language$yMiddle English, 1100-1500 606 $aLinguistics 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aEnglish language$xHistory. 615 0$aEnglish language$xEtymology. 615 0$aEnglish language 615 0$aEnglish language 615 0$aLinguistics. 676 $a420.9 700 $aLerer$b Seth$f1955-$0868124 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910451928703321 996 $aInventing English$92443070 997 $aUNINA