Old English : A Historical Linguistic Companion

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Summary: Lass provides a complete source-book for Old Enlgish grammar
Review: Old English: A Historical Linguistic Companion is a choice book for those who need accurate and concise information on OE grammar. One of the major strengths of this book is its diachronic view of the grammar. Lass does not treat Old English as a language in isolation, but, rather, he guides the reader through the changes from Proto-Indo-European to the English language of the early Middle Ages. Lass focusses primarily on the phonology of Old English, and, at the same time, gives informative analyses of verbal and nominal morphology. However, this book does not constrain itself to structural description. The chapters on Vocabulary and Word-Formation and The Dissolution of Old English give a glimpse into the world of languages in contact and societal change during and prior to the period. Old English: A Historical Linguistic Companion is as easy to use as a pocket-grammar and contains the information linguists need in a fully analyzed, succinct manner.