Linguistic Evolution

'Michael Samuels's neat and careful monograph marks a considerable advance on the presentations of other distinguished scholars inasmuch as it is better balanced and more readable. It is better balanced because it observes a right proportion between abstract and concrete, between scientific description and accompanying exemplification. It is more readable and more easily assimilable because its author takes care to explain technical terms accurately and unobtrusively on their first appearance and to list them with complete references in an exceptionally well-organized subject index - a model of its kind … The author illustrates freely from the classical languages, from the languages of Western Europe with their long recorded histories, and, above all, from the dialects of late Middle English, on which he is probably unrivalled as an authority … this book bears the hallmark of excellence. It embodies the findings of many years of patient research.' The Times Literary Supplement

• Preface; Note to second impression; Abbreviations; 1. Introduction; 2. Variation in the spoken chain; 3. System: the phoneme; 4. Grammar and lexis (I): variation; 5. Grammar and lexis (II): systemic regulation; 6. Diversity and contact; 7. An assessment of the problem; 8. Dimensions of study; 9. Conclusions; Bibliography; Index of persons; Index of subjects.