Elly van Gelderen takes an approach in A History of the English Language that is markedly different from most available textbooks on this topic, whether relatively recent (Singh 2005, Fennell 2001, Knowles 1997) or now classic (Algeo & Pyles 2004, Baugh & Cable 2002, Millward 1996). As the author states in her Preface, “the present book is more grammatical and typological in focus, i.e., language-internal” (ix). What van Gelderen dispenses with are the sociological, political, and cultural events, which had little influence on the language and those aspects of major events, which, themselves, had little relevance to linguistic change. Yet in spite of its strictly linguistic focus, the text is easy to read and appropriately designed for a semester course with advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students. Its accessibility is partly due to van Gelderen's style. As if she were standing in the classroom, she describes linguistic changes, calls attention to their appearance in example texts, poses questions, and prompts the reader to consider important points and new ideas.

Van Gelderen's narrowed focus and moderately detailed linguistic descriptions afford her room for other material as well. She devotes this extra space to considerable discussion of linguistic variation and pre-scriptivism. She also integrates many more textual examples into her linguistic descriptions rather than relegating them to pages at the ends of the chapters. These examples—sometimes only a phrase or sentence, other times a much larger excerpt—serve as the basis for observations on spelling, form, syntactic structure, and dialect. Students of English and other literatures, as well of linguistics, should therefore find this approach a most relevant and accessible way to study the history of the English language.

The format of the book is visually less dense and more appealing than comparably detailed texts. The openness of the page is enhanced by numerous tables, charts, facsimiles, maps, and an occasional cartoon. Another of van Gelderen's innovations is her copious references to relevant websites for textual examples, sound files, dictionaries, maps, and ideas for further research. These references are woven into virtually every section of every chapter. An attractive companion website provides additional links, including a glossary of all the linguistic terms used in the text.

The book is divided into ten chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 give an overview of the history of English and of Present Day English, respectively. Chapters 3–8 are the period chapters from pre-Old English to Modern English. Chapter 9 is devoted to World Englishes and chapter 10 wraps up with a short conclusion.

In the first chapter, “The English Language” (pp. 1–11), van Gelderen presents a big picture of English beginning with its Germanic origins, demonstrating some of its current features, and providing a brief overview of the invasions and settlement history of Britain. She provides the proportions of native versus borrowed words in the Modern English lexicon and compares certain aspects of its grammar (such as its syllable structure, phonemic inventory, and word endings) to those of other languages. In this way van Gelderen establishes the context for the rest of the book's content, while demonstrating that there are interesting features of Modern English that a history of the language can help elucidate. It is here that she introduces a theme of the book: that English progresses from a synthetic to an analytic structure in the course of its history. The chapter ends with a discussion of the role of internal and external factors in language change.

The second chapter, “English Spelling, Sounds, and Grammar” (pp. 13–28), introduces another aspect of Modern English grammar, which is also addressed in the course of the ensuing chapters: its irregular spelling. The complexities of English spelling reveal the necessity of the International Phonetic Alphabet, which, in turn, leads to a discussion of how articulatory phonetics is relevant to sound change. The last section introduces grammatical terms used in the text. Theoretical notions are sparse in these first two chapters, which present only what a reader must know in order to understand the changes to come.

The period chapters 3, 4, and 6–8 share a similar organization. They generally open with a single-paragraph overview of external history or of social movements in the period followed by an outline of the chapter and an introduction to the period's textual sources. Each chapter presents spelling practices and phonology followed by grammar—usually broken down into morphology and syntax, then sections on the lexicon and linguistic variation. Grammatical descriptions are less detailed than those in Millward 1996 and Algeo & Pyles 2004, but are illustrated both by full paradigms and by excerpted texts from the period. Summarizing tables of linguistic changes and of the grammatical characteristics of the particular stage of the language appear toward the end of these sections. All chapters are concluded with a list of keywords and a number of discussion questions and exercises, many of which refer to longer sample texts provided in the chapters’ appendices.

Chapter 3, “Before Old English” (pp. 29–45), addresses the origins of language, migrations out of Africa, and theories of Eurasian and Nostratic genetic classifications. Grimm's Law is the first of the two changes covered in the Indo-European to Germanic section, but Verner's Law is omitted here. Truly mystifying, though, is the Second (High German) Consonant Shift's appearance in this section where no justification is given for its inclusion. The lack of detail regarding the membership of the Germanic branch of languages is also puzzling. English, German, Icelandic, Scandinavian, and Dutch appear as the modern Germanic languages on a diagram of the branches of Indo-European with no indication of their relationships to each other or reference to the less familiar members of this branch.

Chapters 4 and 6 through 8 are devoted to the description of Old, Middle, Early Modern, and Modern English, while the focus of chapter 5 is the changes other languages have exerted through the Middle English period. The sections on sound and spelling in chapters 4, “Old English: 450–1150” (pp. 47–90), and 6, “Middle English: 1150–1500” (111–153), occasionally suffer a lack of clarity and would benefit from further explanation of how sound changes affected the phonological system in the given period. Modern English structures serve as the point of comparison for the periods’ syntactical descriptions and the final sections illustrate dialectal differences in period texts.

Though focused on external influences, chapter 5, “From Old to Middle English” (pp. 91–109), relegates the historical description of the Norman invasion to a brief Peterborough Chronicle entry in an appendix and that of the Viking raids is omitted altogether. Though van Gelderen provides an adequate discussion of the Danelaw and of Scandinavian place names here, a short reprise of these topics would be welcome in the Middle English chapter's discussion of the spread of new inflections and pronouns. Chapter 5 closes with a most welcome discussion of how Thomason & Kaufman's scale of borrowing and interference applies to the major linguistic influences on English.

Chapter 7, “Early Modern English: 1500–1700” (pp. 155–202), begins with an unusually in-depth, though only tangentially relevant, description of the printing and binding process. A feature of this chapter that is both relevant and useful, however, is a demonstration of how texts reveal the rate and spread of language change and how language change informs the dating and identification of a text's origins. Chapter 8, “Modern English: 1700–Present” (pp. 203–248), is refreshingly up-to-date in its reference to recent changes, especially those in Modern American English. Regional and register varieties, in both Britain and the United States, are discussed in connection with social attitudes toward these varieties.

Chapter 9, “English around the World” (pp. 249–279), is organized like the period chapters, but begins with several pages of external history of the major world Englishes. The section on spelling and sounds leaves the reader somewhat bewildered. Phonological deviations from Standard American and British usage are organized according to articulatory parameters (for example, changes in place of articulation, in manner, or in voicing) and are exemplified by individual words. This presentation leaves the reader with no general impression of the features of any variety of English. More helpful here would be an examination of the systems of related dialects and the changes that differentiated them from their common ancestor. An interesting discussion of the lexicon and code-switching toward the end of the chapter leads smoothly into a section on the characteristics of pidgins and creoles, especially those influenced by English. Included here is a brief examination of the Creolist Hypothesis of the origins of AAVE, and of the claim that English itself is a creole.

Chapter 10, “Conclusion” (pp. 281–291), wraps up with reviews of the major changes in the history of English, the movement from synthetic to analytic, theories of language change, and a biased treatment of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Lists of some additional URLs, discussion questions, and research topics close the chapter. The book has three appendices: (I) “Possible answers to the exercises and some additional information,” (II) “How to use the OED,” and (III) “Chronology of Historical Events.” These are followed by a list of references and an index.

Van Gelderen's A History of the English Language is a welcome addition to the available textbooks on this topic. It is at once innovative and traditional, detailed and readable. What makes the book compelling is its accessible style, its currency, and the way its author continually contextualizes linguistic details. Like a series of informal lectures, this book repeatedly exposes the reader to certain major changes. The Great Vowel Shift, for example, is cited at least seven times before being presented in the Early Modern English chapter. While multiple exposures can be a pedagogical boon, all references are not equally effective; some are so brief that they create more questions than illumination. Similarly, undefined new terms often appear within the context of another discussion. The reader must forge onward to the following paragraphs for explanation of these terms rather than (vainly) looking in earlier sections for a prior reference. Nevertheless, van Gelderen's focus and style provide a practical core of the history of the English language, one which is not so dense as to leave the student breathless, but which provides ample opportunities to discuss and to pursue some of the numerous current topics and links that the author provides.