Introduction, Speaking of English Summary and Analysis

The authors note that the English language brings together many influences in one place. In their record of the language, they rely upon literature, news, voice recordings, songs, and the like in order to tell a general story about the history of the English language. They try to tell the whole story in a book which they admit is difficult. In fact, the story of the English language is more the story of English languages. The English language is in constant flux and is always adding and losing terms, pronunciations, and the like.

It has been hard to know how the language sounded in its various forms until voice recording but its genius is still available. English speakers have a natural way of knowing what words go where even with fewer concrete rules about grammar...