This book takes the reader on a journey tracing the history of English from prehistory to the present day with material divided into chapters on predominantly chronological grounds. This book is not so much an academic monograph as a book aimed at the interested reader; it has been written in such a way as to be accessible to readers both with and without a linguistic background. Thus, the main text minimises the use of specialist linguistic terminology while ‘Language notes’ boxes throughout the main text use linguistic conventions (e.g. IPA) more freely. There are numerous illustrations, especially maps, which accompany the text and help the reader follow the information presented in the text; references are limited to the occasional footnote, lists of further reading at the end of each chapter and a list of references organised by chapter at the end of the book. The book is thus presented as an introduction to the history of English which might be of interest to students and non-academic readers. In what follows, I summarise the book’s chapters, before considering how well the book meets the needs of its likely audiences.
The book begins with the oldest stages of what was to become English. Chapter 1, ‘Where it all started: The language which became English’ (pp. 2–16), introduces Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Germanic and outlines the processes by which Proto-Germanic speakers made their way to southern Scandinavia. The chapter then summarises some hypotheses about language contact in this prehistoric period, including hypothesised contacts between what was to become Proto-Germanic on the one hand and Finno-Samic and Afro-Asiatic on the other, and hypotheses about contact between Indo-European languages more widely and various non-Indo-European languages (e.g. Vasconic and Hatto-Sumerian). Indicative evidence is provided to illustrate most of these hypotheses and, whilst a little more critique of the hypotheses would be welcomed in places (e.g. how does the ‘surprisingly large non-Indo-European element’ of the Proto-Germanic lexicon (p. 14) compare with the non-Indo-European element of other Indo-European languages?), their uncertainty is generally appropriately acknowledged.
In chapter 2, ‘The journey begins: The first movement south’ (pp. 17–30), the author discusses the expansion of Germanic languages out of southern Scandinavia. Sections on the Goths and the Vikings outline the activities of East and North Germanic speakers and extend into the second millennium CE in the case of the latter. The final section of the chapter considers prehistoric contact between speakers of Germanic and Celtic varieties, as reflected in Celtic loanwords in Germanic languages and the habitual and non-habitual forms of BE in Old English and (perhaps) West Germanic. There is much of interest in this chapter and well-selected examples illustrate the author’s points clearly. However, in some places it would be helpful for the reader to know more about the evidence behind the information presented. In particular, discussion of the expansion of Germanic through migration of its speakers (pp. 17, 19) presumably relies heavily on equations between language, material cultural and migration as it largely concerns periods before the earliest texts in Germanic languages or references to Germanic speakers in Classical texts. Mention of the evidence on which these views are based would better allow readers to assess the likelihood of the account presented and to assess it in the light of distinctions between demic and transcultural diffusion of language (and other cultural characteristics) discussed in chapter 1 (pp. 6–8). Additionally, consideration of recent research into the distribution of the earliest linguistic evidence (e.g. Sims-Williams Reference Sims-Williams2020) would provide a more up-to-date perspective on where (Proto‑)Celtic can earliest be placed (pp. 17–18).
Chapter 3, ‘Interlude: A view from the Celtic island’ (pp. 31–41), turns to the history of the Celtic languages in Britain. Here, the author follows Schrijver (Reference Schrijver, Filppula, Klemola and Pitkänen2002, Reference Schrijver and Higham2007) in arguing for the widespread use of (Celtic-influenced) Latin in much of lowland Britain during and after the period of Roman occupation, before turning to the retreat of Brittonic in the post-Roman period in the face of (pre-)Old English, Goidelic and Old Norse. The chapter ends with a return to consideration of Brittonic–Latin contact, and Schrijver’s suggestion that drastic changes in Brittonic in the period c. 450–600 CE arose from Late Latin speakers shifting from (Brittonic-influenced) Latin to Brittonic (for recent responses to these ideas, see Parsons Reference Parsons, Mullen and Woudhuysen2023). ‘Language notes’ sections illustrate correspondences between (inherited and borrowed) vocabulary in the Insular Celtic languages. The historical narratives and dates sketched in this and the following chapter are essentially the traditional ones of (or inferred from) the medieval written sources (e.g. Gildas, Bede, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle), and some reference to scholarship treating this material more critically would be welcomed. Naismith (Reference Naismith2021: chapters 5, 7–8) provides a more up-to-date account of what can – and cannot – be known about events in this period from textual and other evidence and might usefully be read alongside this chapter.
Chapter 4, ‘Heading west again: The North Sea crossing, 400–600’ (pp. 42–53), opens with an account of migration by Jutes, Angles, Saxons and Frisians to southern and eastern Britain. This is largely a traditional account following Bede but notes the more complex reality indicated by place-name and archaeological evidence. The chapter then traces the appearance of the various kingdoms of early medieval England (including parts of what is now southern Scotland) in the written record. Sections on the dialect contact that Germanic migration to England would have entailed (with examples of Old English variants showing affinities to different North-West Germanic languages) and on the closeness of English and (West) Frisian compared with other West Germanic languages are interesting explorations of the linguistic consequences of the meeting of speakers of different Germanic language varieties in Britain.
Chapter 5, ‘Anglo-Saxons and Celts in the British Highlands, 600–800’ (pp. 54–65), discusses English–Brittonic contact and (despite the title) Old Norse in Britain and Ireland. The section entitled ‘The dispossessed’ deals with the effects of language contact between speakers of Brittonic and early English, including both loanwords and some of the (more controversial) effects of contact with Brittonic: English progressives and reduction in morphological complexity between early Old English and Middle English. The chapter then turns to discussion of contact between Old English and Old Norse. The Brittonic substrate effects discussed here and the argument that the chronological gap between the period of likely contact and these effects being visible in English is explicable through long-term separation between Brittonic-influenced and non-Brittonic-influenced English remain controversial (for a comparable textbook discussion of the reduction of complexity in nominal morphology which includes references to scholarship critical of Brittonic-contact explanations, see Hejná & Walkden Reference Hejná and Walkden2022: 269–71).
Chapter 6, ‘And further west: across the Irish Sea, 800–1200’ (pp. 66–75), covers the expansion of English into parts of Wales and Ireland (focusing largely on the twelfth century and later, despite the title). The section on Wales briefly discusses the eleventh-century incursions of Henry I of England and the establishment of Flemish and English colonies in the early twelfth century. The closeness of the modern English dialect of the area to that of the English South-West is noted (but not explored in detail). The chapter then turns to the use of English in Ireland following the Anglo-Norman occupation of parts of Ireland from the late twelfth century, including the survival in Forth and Bargy (south-east Ireland) of a variety descended from the medieval English of Ireland. This chapter is a good introduction to a variety of Middle English that is not very commonly discussed in introductory works on the history of English; it is well illustrated with examples of southern and south-west midland Middle English features preserved in Forth and Bargy which demonstrate the inheritance from the earlier Middle English of Ireland.
Chapters 7–9 track English as it spread to the Americas (chapter 7, pp. 76–98), across the Americas to the Pacific (chapter 8, pp. 99–114) and into the southern hemisphere (chapter 9, pp. 115–31), while chapter 10 introduces cases where English was or may soon be given up in favour of other local languages (pp. 132–42). As in previous chapters, an outline history is sketched and examples of language varieties or linguistic features resulting from language contact are given, especially loanwords in English and examples of English-lexified creoles. In these chapters, sections on ‘The dispossessed’ trace the fates of speakers of other languages as a result of European colonisation and sections on ‘The enslaved’ consider both the development of creoles amongst enslaved populations and the geographical spread of these creoles through relocation of formerly enslaved people and their descendants. In these chapters, there is perhaps slightly less focus on features of the different languages and language varieties discussed than in previous chapters. Instead, the focus shifts slightly further towards outlining the contexts in which languages and language varieties were used and the histories of their speakers. Nevertheless, exemplification can still be wide-ranging and will be of much interest to readers. For example, examples in chapter 7 include the polysynthetic nature of Algonquian, Taino loanwords in English, and Sranan (an English-lexified creole used in Surinam). Chapter 10’s consideration of the retreat of English in the face of Indigenous (e.g. Guaraní) and colonial languages (e.g. Spanish) includes very little detail about the languages and language varieties under discussion beyond numbers or proportions of users of the languages. However, there is detailed consideration of the social factors leading to English dying out as a native language in these contexts either historically or in the near future.
The story traced in chapter 11, ‘Meanwhile … Britain and the British Isles from 1600’ (pp. 143–55), is also largely one of linguistic retreat, though in this case of languages other than English in Britain, Ireland and the Channel Islands (alongside consideration of Welsh and Scottish-Gaelic-speaking communities in the Americas). Illustrations of Patagonia Welsh, Norn words in the modern dialect of Shetland, and Insular Norman are included. The picture painted is not always in agreement with the most recent scholarship (or the references provided). Claims that the River Tamar was a linguistic frontier until about the end of the 1200s (p. 146) are slightly at odds with the information that the effective linguistic border between Cornish and English was the Ottery in the reference provided (George Reference George, Ball and Müller2009). Moreover, the picture painted of a gradual south-westwards retreat of Cornish from 1200 CE could be modified in the light of a recent and thorough consideration of the available onomastic evidence, which suggests a rapid decline in the use of Cornish in a wider area of eastern Cornwall by about 1300 (Padel Reference Padel2017).
The final chapter, chapter 12, ‘Transcultural diffusion: The new native Englishes’ (pp. 154–64), discusses Englishes around the world that have arisen through transcultural diffusion and language shift rather than the large-scale movement of English speakers. The case-study situations discussed include (most fully) the linguistic history of Singapore and the emergence of English as a native language there, with briefer consideration of usage and varieties of English in parts of Britain and Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and India. The chapter is well illustrated with interesting examples of linguistic features deriving from the other languages used in some of these areas.
As will be evident from the summaries above, chapters each consider a number of different topics that are chronologically and thematically linked. However, these sections are not linked together explicitly. The book does not have an introduction or a conclusion. Instead, a ‘Prologue’ and an ‘Epilogue’ (both of less one page) top and tail the book, the former introducing the journey over time and space that the book will trace, and the latter summarising the geographical extent of English-speaking communities today. However, topics that recur in several chapters form common thematic threads. Several chapters include sections entitled ‘The dispossessed’ discussing the fates of languages which retreated or disappeared as a result of the expansion of English (and sometimes other languages). Similarly, many chapters include sections on ‘The enslaved’ considering language amongst medieval and modern enslaved people. These sections occur in chapters dealing with English in prehistoric and medieval times (for example, ‘The dispossessed’ in chapter 2 considers the retreat of (Proto-)Celtic as Germanic languages spread geographically) and more extensively in chapters discussing the expansion of English and other European languages in modern colonial contexts (chapters 7–9). Another strand running through several chapters of the book is represented by chapter-final sections on ‘The Ingvaeonians who stayed behind’, tracing the history of Frisian in (approximately) the period covered by the chapter. These different thematic strands could be better integrated. For instance, the reader is told of differences between mainland and island varieties of North Frisian resulting from different waves of settlement in the area (p. 74). This seems an ideal candidate for comparison with the dialect-contact situations discussed elsewhere in the book, but there is no consideration of contact (or the lack of it) here. However, the close attention paid to the histories of languages and their speakers other than English and English speakers is unusual in books dealing (broadly) with the history of English and is an admirable counterpart to English-focused narratives presented elsewhere.
There are unfortunately several errors in this book, particularly in treatments of onomastic evidence. The Shropshire hillfort Caer Caradoc is not thus named in medieval sources; rather, the modern name seems to be a folk etymological reinterpretation of an obscure name and is only attested from the eighteenth century (earlier spellings begin with Cordokes 1271–2; Gelling Reference Gelling2001: 221–2). The claim that this was the site of Caratacus’ last battle in 50 CE (p. 31) is therefore doubtful. Place-names in ‑thorp(e) indicate dependent settlements, but not dependence on place-names in ‑by as claimed (p. 62). Rather, places with thorp(e)-names are known to have been dependent on settlements named in many different ways and are additionally found in areas where by-names are absent (Cullen et al. Reference Cullen, Jones and Parsons2011: 37–41, 119, 123). Roderick is a non-Gaelic equivalent to the Scottish Gaelic personal name Ruairidh but the latter, which is in origin a Goidelic personal name, does not derive from the former (O’Brien Reference O’Brien1973: sections 13, 20). Tenby/Dinbych-y-Pysgod in Pembrokeshire is included in a list of names that are ‘clearly not Welsh’ (p. 66). However, the early spellings of the name (e.g. dinbych 1150 (in a fourteenth-century copy), Tynebeh 1208–10, Dinbych c. 1275) show that Tenby/Dinbych-y-Pysgod was originally a Welsh name with the elements din ‘fort’ and bych(an) ‘little’ in which the spelling of the anglicised form may have been influenced by analogy with Old Norse names in -by, but in which the Old Norse place-name element is not original (Owen & Morgan Reference Owen and Morgan2008: 459). Also not quite correct is Milford ((de) Milverdico portu 1191, Mellferth 1207), which is implied to be a name with English ford ‘shallow river-crossing’ (p. 66) but is instead an Old Norse name with the final element fjǫrðr ‘sea-inlet, fjord’ (Owen & Morgan Reference Owen and Morgan2008: 321), so again the ford of the modern form is analogical rather than original. These errors do not invalidate the points the author is making (accurate examples are also given), but the reader would be advised not to assume the accuracy of all examples.
Overall, the chapters are engagingly written and highly interesting overviews of the sociohistorical contexts and languages and language varieties they discuss, supported by plentiful examples. As such, some chapters might serve as useful introductions to the use of English in different times and places in teaching or for personal research. However, a couple of aspects of the book make it difficult to recommend unreservedly for such purposes. It is admirable that the author presents many recent and innovative linguistic interpretations in this book (particularly those privileging contact-related explanations for language variation and change) and explains them lucidly for the non-specialist reader. However, some of these interpretations remain controversial, as will be evident from the foregoing discussion, and it would be preferable to acknowledge recent scholarship critical of these interpretations to avoid conveying the idea that these interpretations are universally accepted. Additionally, discussions of archaeological and historical evidence in particular (and occasionally linguistic evidence too) are sometimes not up to date with recent advances in these fields. For these reasons, if using this book in undergraduate teaching, I would recommend using it alongside similarly pitched works more critical of both the linguistic and non-linguistic interpretations offered (respectively: Hejná & Walkden Reference Hejná and Walkden2022; Naismith Reference Naismith2021).
