This is a book about the history of the English language, from its remote Indo-European origins down to the present day. It is a complete revision and rewriting of an earlier work, The Story of Language, published in 1964 and now considerably out of date.

In carrying out this revision, I have been fortunate to have the constant help and advice of Dr Jean Aitchison, the General Editor of the series. Without her penetrating and invariably constructive suggestions it would have been a much poorer work. Other friends and colleagues who have given valuable help include Karin Barber, David Denison, Stanley Ellis, Joyce Hill, Colin Johnson, Göran Kjellmer, Rory McTurk, Peter Meredith, Karl Inge Sandred, and Loreto Todd. To all, my grateful thanks. For the errors and shortcomings which remain, I alone am to be held responsible.

I am also grateful to the publishers concerned for permission to quote the following copyright material: a passage of Nigerian pidgin from Loreto Todd's Modern Englishes (1990), by permission of Blackwell Publishers; two passages from G. N. Garmonsway's edition of Ælfric's Colloquy (1947), by permission of Methuen & Co.; a passage from the translation by B. Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors of Bede's Ecclesiastical History (1969), two passages from Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon as reproduced in Kenneth Sisam's Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose (1921), and a passage from D. F. Bond's edition of The Spectator (1965), all by permission of Oxford University Press; and a passage from The New English Bible © 1970 by permission of Oxford and Cambridge University Presses.