A History of the English Language - Elly van Gelderen - A Companion Site

A History of the English Language

Welcome! This website serves as a companion to the college textbook A History of the English Language by Elly van Gelderen, at Arizona State University. The website provides some additional information not found in the book, errata, and links to resources for students interested in learning more about the history of English.

Site Map

Use the navigation bar on the left-hand side of your screen to make your way around the website. You can find descriptions for each of the sections below in the sitemap.

Chapters

Each chapter in the book has an accompanying companion page with a basic summary and links to material for further study.

Glossary

Here the puzzled can find definitions for all the linguistic terms used in the book.

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

The Oxford English dictionary is an indispensible tool for research into the history of English and historical linguistics. Find out why and how to use the dictionary at this handy tutorial page.

Texts

Here some example texts from each of the four major periods of English history (Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English) are provided for reading and easy comparison. Google has scanned in many; do a search.

Timeline

This graphical timeline lists important events in English and world history, showing how the evolution of the language fits into the grand flow of world events.

Additions

This page will list additions and errata to the paper version.

Developed for the Web by Tim Gades.