From Old English to Standard English

Freeborn's book presents a very useful hands-on approach to the evolution of the English language. He provides lots of REAL texts (including many in facsimile form) in the various dialects of Old English, and so on. At once, the reader feels that the subject is not really as remote as he or she might have imagined. This makes the book very useful as a textbook or a source book for a course introducing students to the history of the English language. I have just received a flyer announcing the arrival of an expanded second edition (due mid 1998), and am therefore looking forward to reading it.