Chapter 1 The Birth of English: Clues in Placenames; Chapter 2 Investigating Change in English; Chapter 3 Spellings and Speech Sounds; Chapter 4 Borrowing Words; Chapter 5 New Words From Old; Chapter 6 Changing Meanings; Chapter 7 Punctuation; Chapter 8 Grammar I: Nouns; Chapter 9 Grammar II: Verbs; Chapter 10 Dialects in British English; Chapter 11 Standardisation; Chapter 12 World Englishes;

History of English: * covers the development of the English language from the 5th century to the present day
* contains a `mini-corpus' of texts, used for exercises and to illustrate points raised in the commentary
* introduces key linguistic concepts
* provides `discussion points' to generate debate
* involves readers in collecting and analysing their own data