英語の歴史 A History of the English Language

著者名：McGowan, Joseph P.

Wiley（2026/08/21発売）

• 言語：ENG
• ISBN：9781405192330
• eISBN：9781118326688

Description

Bridges linguistic science and cultural history in a chronological account of the English language

A History of the English Language offers a unified study of English that balances detailed linguistic analysis with a wide-ranging cultural and historical narrative. Designed for students and scholars in English departments, this accessible yet rigorous treatment of the history of English integrates phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic development with the literary, social, and political contexts in which the language evolved. While firmly grounded in linguistic scholarship, the book tells the story of English not only through reconstructed proto-forms and sound changes but also through the lived experiences and historical movements of its speakers.

Author Joseph P. McGowan takes a thematic and chronological approach to the English language’s development, beginning with the Indo-European roots of English and extending through to its global presence today. Key chapters offer extended focus on topics often neglected in other works, such as the Celtic context of Roman and sub-Roman Britain, and the deep impact of language contact in colonial and postcolonial settings. Rich textual examples spanning genres, regions, and historical periods bring abstract linguistic features to life, illustrating how political expansion, literary expression, and cultural exchange have shaped English over fourteen centuries.

The most extensive single-volume treatment of English’s development from pre-history to global modernity, A History of the English Language:

• Addresses varieties of English across time and geography, including British, American, and global forms
• Includes a substantial and original treatment of the Celtic speech area and its influence on early English
• Provides sustained attention to English in contact with other languages across colonial and postcolonial contexts
• Features extended textual and spoken examples to illustrate key linguistic and cultural phenomena
• Uses a thematic and chronological structure that supports both linear reading and modular use for teaching

A History of the English Language is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on the history of the English language, the development of English, sociolinguistics, contact linguistics, and dialectology within English, Linguistics, and Education degree programs. It is also a valuable reference for researchers and educators in historical linguistics and English studies.

Table of Contents

List of Plates/Figures/Maps x
Preface and Acknowledgements xi

CHAPTER 1 The Approach to English 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 The Approach to English 5
1.3 Linguistic Method 7
1.4 Genetic Classification 8
1.5 The Speakers of English 10
1.6 Phonology 11
1.7 Morphology 18
1.8 Syntax 26
1.9 Semantics 30
1.10 Pragmatics and Discourse 33
1.11 Prescriptive and Descriptive Approaches 34
1.12 Diachronic and Synchronic Approaches 35
1.13 From Philological to Generative Approaches – Philological/Neogrammarian Approach – The Comparative Method 36
1.14 The Chomskyan Revolution 38
1.15 'John Is Easy to Please' – Reception of the Chomskyan Approach 39
1.16 Cognitive Approaches 41
1.17 The Sociolinguistic Approach 42
1.18 Linguistic Variation: Languages and Dialects, Pidgins, and Creoles 45

CHAPTER 2 Before English: Indo-European and Proto-Germanic 55
2.1 Sir William Jones and the 'Discovery' of Sanskrit 55
2.2 Indogermanisch: The Comparative Method and Internal Reconstruction 58
2.3 English as a 'Germanic' Language 61
2.4 The Indo-European Languages 70
2.5 Urheimat: Proto-Indo-European Language and Culture 80
2.6 From West Germanic to Early Old English 82

CHAPTER 3 Britannia 88
3.1 Before 'England' 95
3.2 Pretannia: Before 449 104
3.3 Furthest Britain 108
3.4 Romanitas 110
3.5 Downfall: Sub-Roman Britain 118
3.6 'The People of Roman Britain' 122
3.7 'Among Dead Kings and Forgotten Gods' 134
3.8 Sons of Woden 138
3.9 Retrospect 142

CHAPTER 4 Adventus Saxonum: The Coming of the Saxons – Engla-lond 157
4.1 The 'Fall of Britain' – The Saxon Shore – The Withdrawal of the Legions – Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (and Franks, Frisians, Flemings?) 157
4.2 The Sounds of Old English 163
4.3 Wordhord: Old English Morphology and Word-Formation 173
4.4 The Fate of British Latin – Celtic Languages in Saxon Britain – Celtic Loans to Old English – The Celtic Question: Early Contact Situations 198
4.5 The Gods of the Days of the Week: Pre-Christian England 201
4.6 The Earliest Attestations of English – Runic – Anglo-Latin 213
4.7 The Beginnings of English Dialectology: Long-Range Patterns for the History of the Language 221
4.8 AD 793 – Contact Situation: The Viking Age 229
4.9 The Making of England? Wessex and West Saxon 234
4.10 Late Old English, the Eve of 1066: Saxon, Viking, Norman 239

CHAPTER 5 Conquest, and After 261
5.1 When Does Middle English Begin? 268
5.2 Norman French; Anglo-French, Anglo-Norman 272
5.3 Societal Change, Linguistic Contact: A New Insular Order 277
5.4 The Transitional Twelfth Century 281
5.5 The Beginnings of French Loans to English (1100–1400) 292
5.6 Early Middle English Literature 294
5.7 The Creole Hypothesis; Language Contact or Displacement? 298
5.8 A Panoply of Tongues: The Emerging Complexity of the Dialectal Picture 300
5.9 The Dialect Picture from 1300 306
5.10 Chaucer and the English Language 310

CHAPTER 6 Early Modern 327
6.1 Formes of Speche 327
6.2 Power of the Press 335
6.3 The Renaissance Comes to England – New Latin and New Learning 337
6.4 English and Scots 346
6.5 An English Church: The Bible in English to 1611 349
6.6 The English Stage – Shakespeare and the English Language 356

CHAPTER 7 In the New World 369
7.1 A Newe Discoverie: The Beginnings of North American Englishes 369
7.2 Providence: Puritans and Pilgrims 383
7.3 New England, LA Nouvelle-France: English, French, Mohawk, Huron – Contact Situations 391
7.4 The Plains of Abraham (1759): English and French in Canada 399

CHAPTER 8 Imperium 409
8.1 A 'Modern' English 409
8.2 The Great War 418
8.3 Commonwealth and Decolonization: 'So-Called Éire,' Celtic Revivals (Irish – Scots Gaelic – Welsh – Manx – Cornish – Cumbric) 428
8.4 An 'Inner Circle' or 'Inner Circles'? 434
8.5 Convergence and Divergence: Modern Dialectology, Methods and Resources 442

CHAPTER 9 An American Century 462
9.1 Huck and Jim 466
9.2 American Voices 470
9.3 Big Cities of the East 488
9.4 The Melting Pot – Perceptual Dialectology – Suburbanization 498
9.5 Dialectal Diversity in American English and the Study of African American English 505

CHAPTER 10 A Postcolonial Era 1: Asia and the Pacific, the Antipodes 525
10.1 Pidgins and Creoles, Atlantic and Pacific Varieties 528
10.1.1 Africa 533
10.2 Mother Country: Asian-Pacific Varieties of English 535
10.3 Australia 537
10.4 New Zealand 548
10.5 South Africa 553
10.6 Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles, Madagascar 559
10.7 Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia 560
10.8 South Asian Englishes 564

CHAPTER 11 A Postcolonial Era 2: The Caribbean, Africa, the Middles East, Caucasus, Central Asia, Latin America 574
11.1 Caribbean Varieties of English 574
11.2 African Englishes in the 21st Century; French and English in West Africa 579
11.3 The Middle East, Caucasus, and Central Asia 592
11.4 Latin America 596
11.5 Variety and Identity 598

CHAPTER 12 A World of Englishes 623
12.1 English Worldwide or World Englishes? 625
12.2 New British Varieties 627
12.3 The Business of English: English as a Second Language 629
12.4 New Crises, New Words 631
12.5 A Digital Age: The Internet and English 642
12.6 The Medium Is the Message: 21st-Century Media 650
12.7 En Contacto 655
12.8 The Queen's English/The King's English 659

References 665
Abbreviations 668
Glossary 673
Index 684