Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-287) and index.

Introduction: finding English, finding us -- Caedmon learns to sing : Old English and the origins of poetry -- From Beowulf to Wulfstan : the language of Old English literature -- In this year : the politics of language and the end of Old English -- From kingdom to realm : middle English in a French world -- Lord of this langage : Chaucer's English -- I is an Ille a millere as are ye : Middle English dialects -- The great vowel shift and the changing character of English -- Chancery, Caxton, and the making of English prose -- I do, I will : Shakespeare's English -- A universal hubbub wild : new words and worlds in early modern English -- Visible speech : the Orthoepists and the origins of standard English -- A harmless drudge : Samuel Johnson and the making of the dictionary -- Horrid, hooting stanzas : Lexicography and literature in American English -- Antses in the sugar : dialect and regionalism in American English -- Hello, dude : Mark Twain and the making of the American idiom -- Ready for the funk : African American English and its impact -- Pioneers through an untrodden forest : the Oxford English dictionary and its readers -- Listening to Private Ryan : war and language -- He speaks in your voice : everybody's English.