The Stories of English
The Stories of English
by David Crystal
A thorough, dense, interesting – and long – history of English
If you enjoyed Spell It Out (reviewed here), Professor David Crystal’s The Stories of English offers a much more comprehensive history of English.
What it’s about
David Crystal goes beyond standard English and looks at regional varieties, informal speech, and global varieties of English. There is far more detail than Spell It Out in terms of history, in-depth examples and statistics. In addition, the focus is broader than just spelling – The Stories of English addresses attitudes towards different dialects, linguistic change, and changes in pronunciation and grammar.
The good
This book is absolutely packed with information and examples – David Crystal is an expert in this area, and it shows. The chronological approach, which might otherwise get a bit turgid, is partly broken up with tables of words, annotated extracts from manuscripts, and short snippets about people or texts that illustrate the points being made.
The less good
The typeface in my paperback edition (Penguin 2005) is tiny and too near the spine, making it both more difficult to read and much longer that it initially looks. This book is not for the faint-hearted!
Who is it for?
Stories of English goes into far more depth than is needed for most literacy teachers, so I’d recommend it only to those teachers with a strong interest in the history of English. But (if you make it to the end) reading this will give you the confidence that you can answer lots of those ‘why?’ questions that students like to ask about etymology!
If you’re interested in the history of English, but don’t want to tackle this tome, try the ‘History of English’ podcast, reviewed here.