When & why did thou disappear from Standard English? Would a Victorian Cockney have said observation or hobservation? Was Jane Austen making a mistake when she wrote Jenny & James are walked to Charmonth this afternoon? This superbly well-informed
- & also wonderfully entertaining
- history of the English language answers all these questions showing how the many strands of English (Standard English dialect & slang among them) developed to create the richly-varied language of today.