speakers of English, 1–8
spectrography, 57
speech rate, 52–9
speech v. writing, 24–6, 54–6, 94–6, 159
spelling, 69–84, 265–6; correct, 79; deviant, 77, 154, 266; history of, 78–80; Internet, 137–8; irregular, 69–73, 137; Middle English, 189, 196–7; Old English, 167, 171; reform of, 82–4; rules of, 73–8; teaching of, 72–5; v. reading, 73
Spenser, Edmund, 210
split infinitives, 30
standard English, 16–17, 128, 203–8, 296; regional, 231–69, 276–80; teaching of, 279–80; world, 280–4, 292–7
statistical laws, 157–60
stressed syllables, 76, 265
structure of language, 19–84
style, 98–9, 144–60, 223
suffixation, 41, 135
Survey of English Dialects, 92–3
Svartvik, Jan, 148–9
Swift, Jonathan, 117, 222–3
switching between languages, 273–4
syllables per minute, 53
Synge, J. M., 240
synonymy, 194–5
syntax, 23
syzgies, 119–20
technical terms, 39, 70–71, 228–9
technology, 127–43
telephone, use of, 127–8
telestich, 116
television advertising, 98
television programmes, 128
terminology, grammatical, 26–31
Tex-Mex, 274
texting, 141–2
Thomas, Dylan, 155
Thorndike, E. L. and Lorge, I., 157
thou v. you, 219
‘t-ing in i’, 123
Tok Pisin, 15, 17
Tolkien, J. R. R., 182
Tomlinson, Ray, 139
tongue twisters, 118
trade names, 77, 136–7
trucker talk, 104–5
Tyndale, William, 220
typewriter, 127
typography, 127
U v. non-U, 230–31
Undley bracteate, 181
univocalics, 119
uses of English, 85–160
van Buren, Paul, 151
varieties of language, 87–106; see also dialects
Viking invasions, 174–5
virtual worlds, 129–30, 136
vocabulary, 34–51, 228–32; complaints about, 42–5, 221–2; Early Modern English, 210–17; estimating your own, 46–9; frequency of, 159–60; Middle English, 189–90; Old English, 168; regional, 35–6, 237, 239, 252, 255–9, 262, 267–9, 277–9; size of, 34–9; types of, 39–44
vowels, 54; short v. long, 76–7
Waller, Edmund, 222
Webster, Noah, 249
Wenglish, 273
West Saxon dialect, 173
who/whom, use of, 31
Wilkins, John, Bishop, 222
will/shall, use of, 26, 31
Wilson, Thomas, 212, 213
Wood, Clement, 120
word games, 115–23
word order, 23–4, 168–70, 188–9, 195, 218, 273
word squares, 116–17
words in English, 34–9; types and tokens, 71–2
words within words, 120–21
World English, 233–69, 292–7
World Wide Web, 129–31
Wright, Ernest, 118
writing see speech v. writing
Wyclif, John, 194, 197–8
Wynne, Arthur, 115
Yacky dar moy bewty!, 113
ye, 196
Yeats, W. B., 240
Zettersten, Arne, 159
Zipf, George, 157
1 But notice that shortly has a new meaning: ‘soon’. It does not mean ‘in a short manner’.
2 Asleep and several other words beginning with a- cause problems. I have heard people say such things as They’re very asleep and Two more asleep children I’ve never seen! But the usage isn’t a normal one.
The English Language: A Guided Tour of the Language Page 32