Q: Early Modern English (bibliographic suggestions)

[Richard Hogg]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
On  3 Dec 98 at 9:15, Jacob Baltuch wrote:

> Original message----------------------------
>I'm interested in finding some
> basic references on Early Modern English (syntax, phonology) that
> also contain good bibliographical pointers to the rest of the
> litterature. I could only find the following titles which would seem
> to fit the bill (although since I haven't seen them, I don't know if
> they really do).

The bibliography is massive, I'm afraid. For the relative beginner an
excellent start is:

Barbara Strang, A History of English, 1970
(the best one-volume history)

For the more specialist then:

Eric Dobson English Pronunciation 1500-1700, 1968
is the starting point for phonology

For syntax an excellent start can be made with my colleague David
Denison's work:

English Historical Syntax, 1993
which is packed with further references.

And of course almost anything by Roger Lass with give you hours of
fun!

The problem is not that there's not enough, quite the reverse.


>  Jeremy J. Smith, Essentials of early English, Routledge, (to appear
>  in 1999)

Jeremy has a first class work published in 1996, but my copy is at
work and I can't remember the exact title (old age!!). You could get
hold of that! Also most libraries should have:

Michael Samuels, Linguistic Evolution, 1972

The Gorlach book is a straight translation according to the title
page.

>  George Stuart Gordon, Shakespeare's English, (publisher?), 1978 (in
>  fact this seems to be merely a translation of a 1928 work?)

I have never read this I'm afraid.

> Specifically for phonetics I could only find:
>
>  Inge Kabell (and others), Studies in early modern English
>  pronunciation, Atheneum, 1984

If my memory serves me (unlikely), this is the proceedings of the
DEMEP symposium, but that work is also at work, so there are no
guarantees.

You might also note that volume 3 of The Cambridge History of the
English is due out, we hope, in late 1999. Volume 4 is due out early
in 1999:

CHEL 3, 1476-1776, ed. Roger Lass
CHEL 4, 1776-present day, ed. Suzanne Romaine

(Vols 1 and 2 were published in 1992, Volume 5 in 1994.

David Denison and I are edited "A History of English" for CUP, due
circa 2001.


Hope this helps.

Richard
(General Editor, Cambridge History of the English Language)
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