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RR 2004/136 The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (2nd edition) David Crystal Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2003 vii+499 pp. ISBN 0 521 82348 X (hbck); ISBN 0 521 53033 4 (pbck) £55/$75 (hbck); £25/$35 (pbck)
Keywords English language, Encyclopaedias
Review DOI 10.1108/09504120410528126
First published in 1995 and previously reviewed in these columns (RR 1997/487), David Crystal's scholarly and vastly entertaining conspectus of the varieties of English past, present and future, which had seen five reprints prior to this second edition, well deserves its transcendent success. It is truly a masterly exposition of a complex field with expanding frontiers, written with such verve and brilliance as to create mounting interest in our heritage of language. In his original preface, Crystal wrote " [A] book about the English language - is a daring enterprise, for it has as many perceptive critics as there are fluent readers". True then, true now - but the critics of today are admirers of Crystal's impressive achievement who wish only the...