1 Some Preliminary Considerations 1
2 From Runes to Printing 7
The‘Fu？orc’used in Old English inscriptions 8
A name-stone in St Hilda’s Church，Hartlepool 8
3 From Williarn Caxton to George Washington：1476 to 1776 20
4 The Disjunctive Period：1776 to the Present Day 34
5 Literature，Ritualistic Works，and Language 58
6 The Recording of English in Dictionaries and Grammars 77
Columns fromOEDandA SupplementtotheOED 90
A page from Fowler’s A Dictionary ofModern English Usage 100
A page from F.Th.Visser，An Historical Syntax of the English Language 102
7 Vocabulary 105
Words for the cow-house 129
Origin and development of the word slum 131
8 Pronunciation and Spelling 137
9 The Syntactical Arrangement of Words 149
10 Dispersed Forms of English 159
Notes 174
Bibliography 187
Index 191