Why does language change? Why can we speak to and understand our parents but have trouble
reading Shakespeare? Why is Chaucer's English of the fourteenth century so different from
Modern English of the late twentieth century that the two are essentially different languages?
Why are Americans and English 'one people divided by a common language'? And how can the
language of Chaucer and Modern English - or Modern British and American English - still be
called the same language? The present book provides answers to questions like these in a
straightforward way aimed at the non-specialist with ample illustrations from both familiar
and more exotic languages.
