The Cambridge History of the English Language is the first multi-volume work to provide a full and authoritative account of the history of English. This volume deals with the history of English up to the Norman conquest. Each chapter gives a chronologically-oriented presentation of the data, surveys scholarship in the area and takes full account of the impact of developing and current linguistic theory on the interpretation of the data. The chapters have been written so as to be accessible both to specialists and nonspecialists, and have been carefully edited by Profesor Hogg to create an integrated approach. This will be essential reading for all those interested in the history of the English language.