Introduction: 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
