This book traces the remarkable reconfigurations that English lexishas undergone in the past millennium. The vocabulary is studied asan indicator of social change, a symbol reflecting different socialdynamics between speech communities, on models of dominance,cohabitation, colonialism and globalisation. Comprehensive guide to the evolution of the Englishvocabulary. Well known passages from literature are used to illustrate thevariety of English words. Accessible discussion of Latin, Greek, Germanic andNorman-French languages. Contains original research into the make-up of the currentlexical core of English.