《英语史--从古英语到标准英语》是一部以历史文献为核心的英语史教程。它通过大量原汁原昧的选文，从语音词汇、语法、书写法和社会背景等方面全方位地展现了英语的演变过程。选文来自各时期的经典文献，大多附有原文扫描圉片、转写文本以及现代英语译。

本书是一部以历史文献为核心的英语史教程。它通过大量原汁原昧的选文，从语音词汇、语法、书写法和社会背景等方面全方位地展现了英语的演变过程。选文来自各时期的经典文献，大多附有原文扫描圉片、转写文本(包括用古英语字体和当代英语书写体转写的文本)以及现代英语译文(包括逐词翻译及意译)。本书还配有专门的网站，提供选文的词汇表、文本详解和文本朗读，丰富了书本内容，而且具有很高的资料价值。

Preface to the third edition

Preface to the second edition

Symbols

Texts and facsimiles

Acknowledgements

1 INTRODUCTION

 1.1 English today

 1.2 Studying variety across time in language

 1.3 How has the English language changed?

 1.4 How can we learn about Old English and later changes in the language?

 1.5 Changes of meaning - the semantic level

2 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IS BROUGHT TO BRITAIN

 2.1 Roman Britain

 2.2 Tbe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

 2.3 How the English language came to Britain

3 OLD ENGLISH (I)

 3.1 Written Old English

 3.2 The development of writing hands (i)

 3.3 Dialects and political boundaries

 3.4 Danish and Norwegian Vikings

 3.5 Effects of Viking settlement on the English language

 3.6 The Norman Conquest

4 OLD ENGLISH (11)

 4.1 The language of Old English poetry

 4.2 OE prose

 4.3 OE grammar

 4.4 Latin loan-words in OE

 4.5 ON loan-words in OE

 4.6 Early French loan-words

5 FROM OLD ENGLISH TO MIDDLE ENGLISH

 5.1 The evidence for linguistic change

 5.2 The Norman Conquest and the English language

 5.3 The earliest 12th-century Middle English text

 5.4 The book called Ormulum

 5.5 12th-century loan-words

6 EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH - 12TH CENTURY

 6.1 Evidence of language change from late OE to early ME in La3amons Brut

 6.2 The Owl & the Nightingale

7 EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH - 13TH CENTURY

 7.1 The Fox and the Wolf

 7.2 The South English Legendary

 7.3 A guide for anchoresses

 7.4 The development of writing hands (ii) - from the llth to the 13th centuries

 7.5 Three medieval lyrics

 7.6 The Bestiary

 7.7 The Lay of Havelok tbe Dane

 7.8 Early 13th-century loan-words, 1200--49

8 NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN TEXTS COMPARED

 8.1 Cursor Mundi - a history of the world

 8.2 Later 13th-century loan-words, 1250-99 (see the Word Book)

9 THE 14TH CENTURY- SOUTHERN AND KENTISH DIALECTS

 9.1 The dialect areas of Middle English

 9.2 How to describe dialect differences

 9.3 A South-Eastern, or Kentish dialect

 9.4 An early South-West dialect

 9.5 A later 14th-century South-West dialect

 9.6 14th-century loan-words (see the Word Book)

10 THE 14TH CENTURY- NORTHERN DIALECTS

 10.1 A 14th-century Scots dialect

 10.2 Another Northern dialect - York

 10.3 The York Plays

 10.4 Northern and Midlands dialects compared

 10.5 Chaucer and the Northern dialect

 10.6 Loan-words, 1320-39 (see the Word Book)

11 THE 14TH CENTURY- WEST MIDLANDS DIALECTS

 11.1 A North-West Midlands dialect- Sir Gawayn and ]~e Grene Kny3t

 11.2 A South-West Midlands dialect - Piers Plowman

 11.3 Loan-words, 1340-59 (see the Word Book)

12 THE 14TH CENTURY - EAST MIDLANDS AND LONDON

 DIALECTS

 12.1 The origins of present-day Standard English

 12.2 The development of writing hands (iii) - the 14th century

 12.3 A South-East Midlands dialect - Mandevilles Travels

 12.4 The London dialect - Thomas Usk

 12.5 Loan-words, 1360-79 (see the Word Book)

13 THE LONDON DIALECT - CHAUCER, LATE 14TH CENTURY

 13.1 Chaucers prose writing

 13.2 Chaucers verse

 13.3 Editing a text

 13.4 Loan-words, 1380-99 (see the Word Book)

14 EARLY MODERN ENGLISH I - THE 15TH CENTURY

 14.1 The beginnings of a standard language

 14.2 The development of writing hands (iv) - the 15th century

 14.3 Chancery English

 14.4 Early 15th-century East Midland dialect - The Boke of Margery Kempe

 14.5 Later 15th-century East Midland dialect - the Paston letters

 14.6 Late 15th-century London English - William Caxton

 14.7 The medieval tales of King Arthur

 14.8 Late 15th-century London dialect - the Cely letters

 14.9 15tb-century loan-words (see the Word Book)

15 EARLY MODERN ENGLISH II - THE 16TH CENTURY (I)

 15.1 The development of writing hands (v) - the 16th century

 15.2 The Lisle Letters

 15.3 Formal prose in the 1530s

 15.4 A different view on new words

 15.5 John Harts An Ortbographie

 15.6 The Great Vowel Shift

 15.7 Punctuation in 16th-century texts

 15.7 Loan-words, 1500-49 (see the Word Book)

16 EARLY MODERN ENGLISH Ill - THE 16TH CENTURY (11)

 16.1 The development of the standard language

 16.2 Evidence for some 16th-century varieties of English

 16.3 English at the end of the 16th century

 16.4 Loan-words, 1550-99 (see the Word Book)

17 EARLY MODERN ENGLISH IV - THE 17TH CENTURY (I)

 17.1 Evidence for changes in pronunciation

 17.2 Sir Thomas Browne

 17.3 The development of writing hands (vi) - the 17th century

 17.4 George Foxs Journal

 17.5 John Milton

 17.6 John Evelyns Diary

 17.7 The Royal Society and prose style

 17.8 Loan-words, 1600--49 (see the Word Book)

18 EARLY MODERN ENGLISH V- THE 17TH CENTURY (11)

 18.1 John Bunyan

 18.2 Spelling and pronunciation at the end of the 17th century

 18.3 John Dryden

 18.4 North Riding Yorkshire dialect in the 1680s

 18.5 Loan-words, 1650--99 (see the Word Book)

19 MODERN ENGLISH - THE 18TH CENTURY

 19.1 Correcting, improving and ascertaining the language

 19.2 Dr Johnsons Dictionary of the English Language

 19.3 The perfection of the language

 19.4 The Genius of the Language

 19.5 Bishop Lowths Grammar

 19.6 The depraved language of the common people

 19.7 Propriety & perspicuity of language

 19.8 Language and social class

 19.9 William Cobbett and the politics of language

 19.10 18th-century loan-words (see the Word Book)

20 FROM OLD ENGLISH TO MODERN ENGLISH - COMPARING

 HISTORICAL TEXTS

 20.1 Commentary on Text 173

 20.2 Your accent gives you away!

21 POSTSCRIPT - TO THE PRESENT DAY

 21.1 Some developments in the standard language since the 18th century

 21.2 The continuity of prescriptive judgements on language use

 21.3 The grammar of spoken English today

 21.4 19th-&20th-century loan-words (see the Word Book)

Bibliography

Index