Ironcladd's Full Review: Robert McCrum, William Cran, Robert MacNeil - Stor...
The Story of English: A Rich and Varied History, Present and Future.
By
James P. Zaworski
Robert MacNeil, Robert McCrum and William Cran put together some research for a PBS television program titled "The Story of English" in the 1980s that became a critical and popular sensation. Apparently, they were the first to recognize the global dominance of the English language, and that it is the closest to a "lingua franca", or common language, that the world has seen, past or present, and that this global dominance will continue into the future. The book, "The Story of English", is not only the companion guide to the television series, but also has gained a life all its own, and is now in its revised, third printing. What follows is my review of this wonderful, landmark book.
"The Story of English" is divided into ten chapters, and begins with the chapter titled "An English Speaking World". This chapter discusses the international importance of English. English is the international language of business, it is the language of the internet, it is even the language of air traffic controllers worldwide. How did this come to be? You may hearken back to England, and history for the answer. "The sun never sets on the British Empire", and English was used to unite this empire, from Hong Kong to India, Kenya to Canada, the colonies that became the United States to Australia. Post World War II, you may blame the spread of English on the Americans, as the United States of America emerged as the economic power.
Chapter Two is titled "The Mother Tongue", and traces the beginnings of English. How unlikely it was, that from the humble beginnings. The story of how English came to be is the result of invasions, one after the other, starting with the Gaelic speaking Celts, and then the Germanic invasions of the island of Britain by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes mixed with the Latin and Greek of the church, the Scandavian language of the Vikings, and then the Norman French invasions of 1066. This "linguistic soup" is examined in detail in this chapter, and makes for some great and informative reading. The circumstances of how the language was formed, and its interesting grammatical structure, are historical and accidental, as well as practical, in terms of the need for communication between these various groups. There is a specific example of a hypothetical marriage between a Danish landowner to a Saxon woman, and how they would communicate, and which synthesis of their common speech would be given to their children. Old English is examined, and the influence of the epic tales, such as Beowulf, are looked at, the influence of French on English (Norman French enriched English by adding some 20,000 words to the English vocabulary), as well as the English of Chaucer, and how this all set the stage for great revolution of the Elizabethans, with Shakespeare at the helm.
Chapter Three is titled "A Muse of Fire", and chronicles and highlights Middle English, particularly of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries, such as Sir Walter Raleigh, and the establishment of the King James Bible in English. Shakespeare himself coined some two to three thousand new words in English, and was the greatest single write of the English language. He also invented phrases, metaphors and other idioms that are ubiquitous today. Contrasted with Shakespeare is the King James Bible, which uses an "economy of words". For example, Shakespeare used some 35, 000 different words in his collected works. The King James Bible uses some 5,000 words. Does this make Shakespeare 5 times smarter than God? Curious and humorous, this conclusion.
Chapter Four and Chapter Five, The Guid Scots Tongue and Loaded Weapon, look at the influences of both Scottish, Scots-Irish, and Irish, on the English language. It is a historical tale with some unlikely results, particularly when these groups moved around and mixed, and ended up in the newly established United States of America.
Chapter Six is titled "Black on White" examines the complicated history of slavery, and the influence of African languages and culture on English, and vice versa. The book talks about this complicated history, of Pidgeon English and "Creolization", and goes on to display how there was a very significant contribution of African languages culturally and linguistically, on the English language.
Chapter Seven , titled "Pioneers", and Chapter Eight "The Echoes of an English Voice" talk about the English of America and Australia and South African and New Zealand, and the development of distinctive accents and perhaps new dialects of the future in these respective areas.
Chapter Nine is titled "The New Englishes" discusses post colonial English, such as Jamaica and India. India is an interesting example, as English is one of the official languages, and is a lingua franca of this land of three hundred different languages. English is the glue that binds this country of diversity together. I like the quote here that in India "more people speak English than the total population of the UK", and that in India "more people are speaking better English than before, and more people are speaking worse English, than before".
Finally Chapter Ten, "Next Year's Words" talks about how the English language, like all languages, is continually changing and growing. From the influence of California, with its "Valley Girl" and "Surfer Dude" English, to the popular culture effect of music and movies, and makes some predictions about the future of English, as the continued international language.
"The Story of English" is truly a landmark work that is eminently readable, interesting, fascinating, and not without some degree of controversy. The authors, a novelist, journalist and producer, bring together their various talents in contributing to a really comprehensive and unexpected treatise on the English language. So far, the 10-part television series has not been put onto DVD, but the book is now in its third printing, a testament to the importance of this work.
This book is essential reading to any student of languages, and is an excellent work for educators, and is a great addition to any English speaker's library.
Now revised, this is the first book to tell the whole story of the English language. Originally paired with a major PBS miniseries, the authors presen...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.