A Historical Phonology of English

Phonological evolution is a major component of the overall history of the language; the subject matter is both significant on its own terms and relevant in curricular terms. This book describes the segmental and prosodic changes in the history of English, provides analyses of these changes both as phonological events and in relation to the evolution of interlocking aspects of earlier English and highlights the relevance of the topics and possibly generate further interest by projecting historical phonological change onto Present-Day English and its varieties. The development of the English sound system is probably the best studied part of the history of the language, however no up-to-date, student-friendly survey exists: this book fills the gap.