Author Description

Based on the acclaimed Oxford Companion to the English Language, this is the most compact, authoritative, and up-to-date source of information about the English language. Edited by one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject, it will be invaluable both for reference and for browsing. Features: international perspective - from Cockney to Creole, Aboriginal English to Zummerzet; historical range - from Beowulf to Ebonics, Chaucer to Chomsky, Sanskrit to Scouse, Latin to the World Wide Web; substantial entries on key subjects such as American and British differences, computing, etymology, pidgin, poetry, sexism, Shakespeare's language, and slang; and pieces on place-names, borrowings from other languages, the evolution of the alphabet, and the story of OK.