Ralph Waldo Emerson once remarked of English that it is 'the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.'

The English language is certainly a sea of words and constructs which has been fed into by almost every major language and ethnic tradition in the world. English began as a hodge-podge of languages, never pretending to the 'purity' of more continental or extra-European languages (which, by the by, were never quite as pure as they like to assume).

The book 'The Story of English', as a companion piece to accompany the PBS-produced series of the same name, hosted by Robert MacNeil, late of the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, is an articulate, engaging, wide-ranging and fair exposition of an ordinarily difficult and dry subject.

The study of English is difficult on several levels. 'Until the invention of the gramophone and the tape-recorder there was no reliable way of examining everyday speech.' What did English sound like 200 years ago, or 400 years ago? 'English is--and has always been--in a state of ungovernable change, and the limits of scholarship are demonstrated by phrases like the famous 'Great Vowel Shift', hardly more informative than the 'unknown land' of early cartography.'

Of course, written language has until modern times been the limited and limiting commodity of a very small minority of people. The balance between the written and spoken language has a variable history, which can still be seen today (compare the writing of the New York Times against the speech patterns and vocabulary choices of any dozen persons you will find on the street in New York City, and this divergence will be readily apparent).

English has many varieties, and this book explores many of them, explaining that the writings and speech-patterns we see and hear as being foreign are actually English variants with a pedigree as strong as any Oxford University Press book would carry. From the Scots language which migrated to the Appalachian mountains to the Aussie languages adapted to Pacific Islands, to the ever-changing barrow speech of inner London, English speakers have a wide variety of possibilities that no one is truly master of all the language.

'If our approach seems more journalistic than scholastic, we felt this was appropriate for a subject that, unlike many academic studies, is both popular and newsworthy. Hardly a week goes by without a news story, often on the front page, devoted to some aspect of English: the 'decline' of standards; the perils and hilarities of Franglais or Japlish; the adoption of English as a 'national' language by another Third World county.'

English is, for international trade and commerce, for travel, for science and most areas of major scholarship, and many other groupings, the language not only of preference, but of required discourse.

In trying to find the length and breadth of English infusion into the world, past and present, MacNeil and primary authors Robert McCrum and William Cran have produced an engaging history, literary survey, sociology, and etymological joyride. By no means, however, are the major streams of English overlooked in favour of the minor tributaries--Shakespeare warrants most of his own chapter, as is perhaps fitting for the most linguistically-influential of all English speakers in history.

Of course, about this same time, the Authorised Version of the Holy Bible (better known as the King James Version) was also produced, with its own particular genius of language. 'It's an interesting reflection on the state of the language that the poetry of the Authorised Version came not from a single writer but a committee.'

There is a substantial difference in aspect of these two works -- whereas Shakespeare had a huge vocabulary, with no fear of coining new words and terms to suit his need, the King James Bible uses a mere 8000 words, making it generally acceptable to the everyman of the day. 'From that day to this, the Shakespearian cornucopia and the biblical iron rations represent, as it were, the North and South Poles of the language, reference points for writers and speakers throughout the world, from the Shakespearian splendour of a Joyce or Dickens to the biblical rigour of a Bunyan, or a Hemingway.'

From Scots to Anglesey, from the Bayou to the Barrier Reef, English is destined to be a, if not the, dominant linguistic force in the world for some time to come, particularly as the internet, the vast global communication network, is top-heavy with English, albeit an ever changing variety.

Revel in the glories of the English language, and seek out this fun book. Everyone will find something new.

After watching the series it is fun to see the information in print.

Just about everything you ever wanted to know about the English Language is in this book. There are newer and older references but none so complete and at the same time readable. This book covers history, usage, almost usage and possible futures of the language.

One of my favorite antidotes was the one about how the Advisory Committee on Spoken English (ACSE) discussed the word "canine":

"Shaw brought up the word 'canine', and he wanted the recommendation to be 'cay-nine'... And somebody said 'Mr. Shaw, Mr. Chairman, I don't know why you bring this up, of course it's 'ca-nine'. Shaw said, 'I always pronounce things the way they are pronounced by people who use the word professionally every day.' And he said, 'My dentist always says (cay-nine)'. And somebody said, 'Well, in that case, Mr. Chairman, you must have an American dentist.' And he said, 'Of course, why do you think at 76 I have all my teeth!'"

After reading about how English came about, the next book to read would be "Divided by a Common Language" by Christopher Davies, Jason Murphy

I read this book back in my 'English Conversation Teacher' days in Japan. Having been embrassed one to many times by students having to lecture me, their teacher, on the history of English, I figured I should do some 'catch-up reading.' I asked around for suggestions and was recommended 'The Story of English'.

It is free of the linguistic jargon most general readers would find pedantic, and although it is aimed at the general reader it is never condescending. The first half of the book explains the historical development of English while the second half focues on modern English.

Most refreshing though, is that it is free of the triumphalism found in many books of this kind. Reflecting the demographic reality of English today, it gives even-handed attention to the many contemporary varieties of English spoken around the world in places such as North America, Singapore, India, the Anglophone West Indies, and so on.

'The Story of English' is best suited to those who are curious about the origins as well as the future of English, and who want an easy-to-understand introduction to the subject.

McCum's book begins with a riveting account of his stroke and his efforts to get help when he finds himself alone in his two story flat, paralyzed, passing in and out of consciousness, and unable to get to a phone without somehow getting out of bed and going downstairs. The chapters that follow, explaining "brain attacks" were not particularly interesting to me as a physician, but may be of great interest to nonmedical people in search of information and understanding about strokes. The account of his slow physical recovery was interesting but it was his honest assessment of the mental anguish that he struggled with during this period that I found to be the most compelling part of this book. He painfully but courageously descibes his disenfranchisement with the "normal" world, his realization that he can never be the person he once was, his grief at having to give up his former life, and his fear in facing the new life that lay ahead of him as a disabled person. His willingness to expose his fear, his vulnerability, and his darkest moments of his depression would help anyone suddenly stricken with a life-changing illness that finds themselves in the same sort of environment that McCrum did -- surrounded by medical people who can't or won't confront his fears of not recovering, of having a recurrence, and of ever having the semblance of a normal life again. His struggle to discover who he really is after the stroke strikes a resonant note in all of our lives, as he points out that this struggle is often simmering below the surface of our busy lives, begging to be attended to, but ignored and pushed back under the surface because we often do not have the time or energy to pursue the question. Not only did the stroke give McCrum the unlimited time to ponder such a deep question, but it gave him the courage to change careers, something he had been vaguely contemplating before the stroke but made a reality afterwards. This book should be required reading for anyone struggling to regain their footing after any life-changing illness, because the emotional changes are identical, and beautifully articulated by McCrum.

This book will help stoke victims, no matter the age, and their loved ones get the real facts, there is no watering down here. My Year Off tells us that stroke victims can make a come back, but it is mighty hard, like I said, no watering down here. As the readers learn of Robert McCrumb's story they will feel as if they are traveling the same journey and experiencing the same emotions as he. When Robert McCrumb awoke the morning of July 29 in 1995 he was unable to move. At the age of 42 he had a severe stroke. As Robert thrashed around in bed unable to sit upright, he wished Sarah; his wife of just 2 months was with him. He didn't experienced anxiety about his condition, just irritation and puzzlement. When a stroke occurs the brain suffers a hemorrhage infarct; the body experiences a colossal disturbance of its innate sensory equilibrium. Robert changed over night from a walking, talking person into an incontinent carcass, unable to make any sense out of his body. He kept passing out and wetting all over himself.

As he recuperated his mornings consented of Sarah showing up at eight in the morning with a tiny cup with a laxative type drink and fresh clothes. She also brought him the days post and the British newspapers, her addiction not his. Then he would be wheeled off by the nurses to have a bath, that was a laborious and exhausting process during which he tried to forget that the nurses were literally manhandling him moving him in and out of a wheel chair specially designed for use in the bath room.

Woven through the book are excerpts of Robert and Sarah's diaries, the reader is given a glimpse into their raw feelings and emotions as they go through this tragedy. The reader will hear the self-doubt the patient goes through as to whether they will survive or what will become of them, and the depression that they go through.

There are so many ranges of feelings in this one, it rates high on emotions. I found the book open and honest concerning strokes and their victims. It's the kind of book we need on the market to keep us informed. This is an excellent book, one worth reading whether there is a stroke victim in your family or not. It's worth being informed, you will not be sorry.

Mr. McCrum, recently pronounced a completely healthy person, has an "insult to the brain" in his forties, and this book chronicles his thoughts and progress from the stroke onward, with sidetracks back to his "former" life, and how he deals with that vs. his "new" life as a stroke victim. For those of us who thought stroke only happened to our elderly parents, and don't quite know how to approach the situation when it affects our contemporaries (more frequently than we might like to think), this book is a good insight into what our friends might be going through, and what they will go through in the recovery period ... the effects of stroke are, of course, most difficult for the patient, but the friends and families also have a lot to think about and understand. I thought that the questions this book raises provide a lot of guidance for the things that one needs to think of, as well as an insight into what your friend might be dealing with. Very valuable from the perspective of the friends/family -- I await my friend's reaction as the patient, altho cannot help but think that it might be of interest because there seems to be a dearth of information about what is happening/could happen at a younger age, altho it is, in fact, rather common. I would highly recommend this book for people who know people in, say, their forties or fifties, who have had stroke -- it's quite a different issue than confronting it in your parents or elderly relatives, and we probably all need more the more specific information about what stroke is and isn't that this book provides.

The book takes one of the most interesting, far-reaching, important and fascinating stories in linguistics and makes of it a cardboard, flavorless bit of school days humdrum.

The book follows from a TV show commissioned by the BBC and it shows. The snide schoolmarm tone, the determination to wring every last bit of vitality out of the material, the "educational", plodding, boring voice, all very effectively render this a bit of dreck.

The book is best in its historical sections, where the journalists' eyes unearth clever detail, before sinking into treacly bromides in the second half.

The almost laughable biases - in the bilingualism debates, Republicans are "prescriptive, authoritarian" while liberals are "tolerant", (never mind that is overwhelmingly Democratic Hispanic parents who most oppose the policy); JFK's visit to his Irish ancestral home is triumphant while Reagan's is merely political and perfunctory, etc. etc. - begin to make one wonder what other evidence the authors have twiddled with to fit their prejudices.

In addition, worrisome false facts crop up in this book. The canard of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address being composed in two minutes on the back of an envelope appears here. As do the folk etymologies for "pass the buck" and "buck"; neither of which have proper citations in the literature. Though this is perhaps to be expected from journalists treading far afield, it distressed the reader to wonder what else is made up, incorrectly cited, or passed as along as truth.

The book does trundle over all of English history in some comprehensiveness, and there were new discoveries for me:
-London brewers felt it necessary to adopt a resolution in 1422, that changed their written language of commerce from Latin or French to English (French had been the official language of England from 1066 to the early 1400s).
-Shakespeare's Midlands regionalisms precludes the East Anglian Bacon's purported authorship of many Shakespeare works.
-Captain John Smith's stark pronouncement at Jamestown: "He that will not work neither shall he eat." Which is one of the fine reasons we are not a Marxist country.

The book frequently surfaces the "purify Englsh" crowd with incidences cited from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, and suitably mocks them, given the historical record of every language's changes, though the book does fail to appreciate legal, political, and socio-economic arguments behind standardized dialects.

The book provides very nice insight into the only work of art ever created by committee: the King James Bible, and shows how the master editor synthesized six working drafts into that timeless statement of human and divine condition. Anyone who has ever had to edit in the presence of outsized egos, thick ignoramuses, or prickly neurotics, that is, fellow humans, will marvel at the accomplishment. The authors also provide entertaining anecdotal details on that other great ancient work in English, Johnson's Dictionary, produced in 9 years for the sum of 1,575 English pounds.

The BBC provenance of the book is clear throughout, mostly for the worse. Pronunciations that vary from Standard British English are illuminated phonetically, while those that don't, aren't. So the American audience, reading that the Australian and British pronunciations vary here or correlate there, is left mystified. And at its worst, there is this outright chauvinism: "The English speak quickly the Americans tend to be more deliberate. The English tend to use a greater variety of tone; Americans tend to a certain monotony."

The book gets much weaker in its modern day sections, which flounce about the globe discovering Englishes in their natural habitat. With the air of a patronizing NPR Brahmin descending upon the colorful locals with quaint habits (you can almost hear them cueing up those creepy NPR "audio samples" of cowbells clanging in the background, or the clippity-clop of horshoes on cobblestones) to explain to the audience at home. It is in these sections where the demands of TV journalism most undermine the authors' efforts. We are quite clearly reading a script written twenty years ago, and it grates.

While I'd previously understood the global offshoots to be descended from, and evolving away from, British English, it hadn't occurred to me that the *date* of offshoot was important. So that America, settled first in the 1600s, is accented and pronounced more like 1600s Elizabethan English, while Australian or New Zealand dialects, which are 19th century creations, sound more like the English of that era. Interestingly, this is exactly the case with French and Spanish, which are outgrowths of the Roman street slang versions of Latin at the separate time those provinces were conquered. The linguistic map of English, rather than marching in steady gradients, pools and puddles and pockets.

Overall, this book should be read by serious students of the English language if for nothing else than its sheer wealth of facts, however incorrectly positioned in a framework they may be. If you are not comprehensively surveying the field, you don't need this book. Similar material is covered much more ably in McWhorter's The Power of Babel and Hughes' A History of English Words.