Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language Series

1) An Introduction to International Varieties of English
Laurie Bauer
This book looks at native speaker varieties of English, considering how and why they differ in terms of their pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and spelling. It shows how the major national varieties of English have developed, why similar causes have given rise to different effects in different parts of the world, and how the same problems of description arise in relation to all ‘colonial’ Englishes.

It covers varieties of English spoken in Britain, the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Falkland Islands.

* Introductory text, presupposes a minimum of previous knowledge

* Focuses on common traits rather than on individual varieties

* Informed by latest research on dialect mixing

* Exercises included with each chapter

* References for further reading in each chapter

2) Introduction to English Morphology: Words and Their Structure
Andrew Carstairs-Mccarthy ,
What exactly are words? Are they the things that get listed in dictionaries, or are they the basic units of sentence structure? Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy explores the implications of these different approaches to words in English. He explains the various ways in which words are related to one another, and shows how the history of the English language has affected word structure.

3) Introduction to English Phonology
April Mcmahon
An Introduction to English Phonology introduces undergraduates to the basic tools and concepts necessary for the outline description of English phonological systems and processes.

4) Introduction to Middle English
Jeremy Smith ,
An Introduction to Middle English is designed to provide undergraduate students of English historical linguistics with a concise description of the language during the period 1100-1500. Middle English, the language of Chaucer, is discussed in relation to both earlier and later stages in the history of English, and in relation to other languages with which it came into contact.

Features:

    * the historical and geographical contexts of Middle English
    * the evidence for Middle English
    * the principal features of Middle English spelling, pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary
    * an introduction to Middle English textual studies
    * selected Middle English texts, both literary and non-literary
    * notes, glossaries and annotated bibliographies
    * questions for review

Most other introductory books on Middle English focus on literary rather than linguistic matters; this book is designed to redress the balance, by providing students of English language with an up-to-date, authoritative survey which takes account of recent trends in historical linguistics.

5) Introduction to Old English
Richard Hogg ,
An Introduction to Old English is an accessible overview of the first centuries in the history of the English language. It combines a wide variety of short texts with a coherent and up-to-date assessment of the forms of language which remain as the foundation of English today, offering a unique study of Old English in context.

It is designed for students unfamiliar with the earliest stages of the English language and provides a basis for further study of the history of the language to the present day. All the basic elements of Old English are covered, including nouns, adjectives, verbs, syntax, word order and vocabulary. Wherever possible comparisons are drawn between Old English and the present-day language, but also with other related languages such as Dutch, German and French.

There are also chapters introducing readers to both Old English poetry and dialect variation as well as a chapter looking at what happened to the language after the Norman Conquest.

This book includes:

    * Up-to-date account of the linguistics of the Old English period with particular stress on syntax and vocabulary
    * Integrates accounts of the language with selected texts graded to improve accessibility for the beginner
    * Strong emphasis on the relation between Old English and present-day English together with relevant features in related languages
    * Contains exercises, a glossary of key terms and an Old English glossary