The Story of the English Language

448 Pages·1967·50.089 MB·

by  Mario Pei

THE STORY OF THE
English
Language
m
uB|
Mario
by Pei
This revised edition of The Story of English
includes much new material and brings up to
date what has happened, and is happening,
to our incredibly vital language.
THE STORY OF THE
English
Language
by Mario Pei
Revised Edition of
The Story of English
Sterling North, writing about the original
edition of The Story of English, described it
as "one of the richest and most vibrant stud-
ies of the English language ever published."
The New York Times Book Review called it
"an engrossing narrative, a clear, interesting
account of the development of a great lan-
guage, from small tribal Anglo-Saxon to large
cosmopolitan English."
For this new edition the author has made
revisions that affect at least 40 per cent of the
material, with copious additions covering the
fifteen years that have elapsed since the
book's first publication. Dr. Pei discusses
changes in attitude about language and
usage, lists a wealth of new words and forms
that have appeared, and includes a new and
particularly interesting chapter, "The Ameri-
can Language." He writes about the uses and
abuses of English, the language as a speaking
(Continued on back flap)
Jacket Design by William Gray
Second printing $7.95

Digitized by the Internet Archive
2012
in
http://archive.org/details/storyofenglishOOpeim
THE STORY OF
THE LANGUAGE
EN.GLISH
BOOKS BY MARIO PEI
All About Language
The Story of English
The Story of Language
Our National Heritage
Invitation to Linguistics
Glossary of Linguistic Terminology
How to Learn Languages and What Languages to Learn
Man
Voices of
The Families of Words
Talking Your Way Around the World
Getting Along in Russian (with Fedor I. Nikanov)
Getting Along in French (with John Fisher)
Getting Along in German (with Robert Politzer)
Getting Along in Spanish (with Eloy Vaquero)
Getting Along in Italian
One Language for the World
Language for Everybody
Swords of Anjou
Our Names (with E. Lambert)
The Book of Place Names (with E. Lambert)
The Italian Language
The World's Chief Languages
Languages for War and Peace
The Language of the Eighth-Century Texts in
Northern France
First-Year French (with E. Meras)
THE STORY OF THE
English
Language
byMario Pei
LIPPINGOTT COMPANY
B.
J.
PHILADELPHIA & NEW YORK
©
Copyright 196J by Mario Pei
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-11311
REVISED EDITION
SECOND PRINTING
m
mm mmm
Prin merica
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to state his deep indebt-
edness to Professor Donald W. Lee, formerly
of Columbia, now of the English Department
of the UniversityofHouston, Texas, who pain-
stakingly read the entire manuscript of the
original edition and offered many valuable
suggestions and corrections; to the numerous
authorities cited in the text, particularly
Baugh, Jespersen and Robertson; and to the
scores of newspaper writers and columnists
who, by reason of their tireless reporting and
creation of innovations, have so much to do
with the growth of the English language of
today and tomorrow.
M. P.