favourite English history/general intro texts

[James Harbeck]

If you were teaching a course on the history and structure of the
English language, basically an introduction to linguistics and the
history of English for third- and fourth-year students for whom the
course will likely be the only linguistics course they take, what
text would you use? (I won't be, but someone I'm related to will;
he's been out of academe for some time and so is brushing up on
what's currently preferred for such uses, and I said I'd ask around
too.) The one text I can think of is Algeo and Pyles, though I'm not
sure whether the balance of focus in it is just right for the
specific course in question. And O'Grady doesn't really cover
history. Plus this is a one-semester course.

Thanks,
James Harbeck.

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