Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language
Seth Lerer
Seth Lerer's Inventing English is a masterful, engaging history of the English language from the age of Beowulf to the rap of Eminem. Many have written about the evolution of our grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, but only Lerer situates these developments in the larger history of English, America, & literature.
Lerer begins in the seventh century with the poet Caedmon learning to sing what would become the earliest poem in English. He then looks at the medieval scribes and poets who gave shape to Middle English. He finds the traces of the Great Vowel Shift in the spelling choices of letter writers of the 15th century & explores the achievements of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of 1755 and The Oxford English Dictionary of the late nineteenth & early twentieth centuries. He describes the differences between English & American usage &, through the example of Mark Twain, the link between regional dialect & race, class, & gender. Finally, he muses on the ways in which contact with foreign languages, popular culture, advertising, the Internet, & e-mail continue to shape English for future generations.
Each concise chapter illuminates a moment of invention-a time when people discovered a new form of expression or changed the way they spoke or wrote. In conclusion, Lerer wonders whether globalization & technology have turned English into a world language & reflects on what has been preserved & what has been lost. A unique blend of historical & personal narrative, Inventing English is the surprising tale of a language that is as dynamic as the people to whom it belon