Abstract
We cannot understand what a language is until we know its history. More than for most subjects, history is the key to language, because the very fabric of a language — its vocabulary, its grammar, its spelling, and so on — is a living record of its past.
Your Roman-Saxon-Danish-Norman English.
Daniel Defoe, The True-born Englishman (1701)
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© 2006 Jan Svartvik and Geoffrey Leech
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Svartvik, J., Leech, G. (2006). The First 500 Years. In: English. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230596160_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230596160_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4039-1830-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-59616-0
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