EBOOK External Influences on English:From its Beginnings to the Renaissance

This book provides the fullest account ever published of the external influences        on English during the first thousand years of its formation. In doing so it makes        profound contributions to the history of English and of western culture more        generally.English is a Germanic language but altogether different from the other        languages of that family. Professor Miller shows how and why the Anglo-Saxons began        to borrow and adapt words from Latin and Greek. He provides detailed case studies of        the processes by which several hundred of them entered English. He also considers        why several centuries later the process of importation was renewed and accelerated.          He describes the effects of English contacts with the Celts, Vikings, and French,        and theways in which these altered the language's morphological and syntactic        structure. He shows how loanwords from French, for example, not only increased the        richness of English derivation but resulted in a complex competition between native        and borrowed suffixes.Gary Miller combines historical, cultural, and linguistic        perspectives. His scholarly, readable, and always fascinating account will be of        enduring value to everyone interested in the history of English.