"This practical and informative course book is a fascinating, visual volume which leads the student through the development of the language from Old English, th

Can ghoti really be pronounced fish? Why is "o" short in glove and love, but long in rove and cove? Why do English words carry such extra baggage as the silent

This volume provides, for the first time, a pan-European view of the development of written languages at a key time in their history: that of the 16th century.