The Long Journey of English: A Geographical History of the Language
Peter Trudgill (Cambridge University Press, 2023): 191pp, £60 (hbk), £18.99 (pbk/ebk) ISBN9781108 845120 (hbk), ISBN9781108949576 (pbk) ISBN9781108954624 (ebk)
Reviewed by Katie Finnegan
In The Long Journey of English the accomplished linguist Peter Trudgill tells the fascinating story of the development and global spread of the English language. It is a journey in the real sense, exploring how the language changed as its speakers moved from place to place. Migration, language contact and language shift have been constant themes in its long history.
Five thousand years ago nobody spoke a language that we would today recognise as English. But from its proto-Germanic roots, it has become one of the most prominent global languages. Over 12 chapters, Trudgill weaves together rich historical and linguistic detail to show how the English language has developed over time and in different places.
The book follows a chronological structure, with the chapters covering different time periods and geographical places. It’s accessible to non-linguists, with ‘Language Notes’ sections providing helpful definitions and language examples. Maps also provide useful geographical context.
After describing English’s Germanic origins in the early chapters, Trudgill focuses on its development in the British Isles during the medieval period. The migration of Germanic-speaking people in tribal groups, followed by speakers of Old Norse and, later, Norman French, helped to shape the language. As English advanced and changed, the Celtic language retreated. Then, in 1169, English spread outside of the British Isles for the first time, going to Ireland.
During the 1600s English speakers travelled across the Atlantic, settling in the Americas. Trudgill describes how speakers of different British dialects came into contact, leading to new mixed dialects. At the same time, many Indigenous languages were lost, often as a result of violence towards Indigenous communities.
Next, between 1700 and the late 1800s, English expanded into Canada, the Bahamas and the Caribbean, and westwards to the Pacific coast of the United States. Trudgill discusses how contact between African slaves and English speakers led to the development of English-based creoles, as in the Caribbean. In the nineteenth century English speakers reached the Southern Hemisphere, including Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The global advance of English has been a remarkable success story for the language, but sadly it also led to the displacement, retreat and death of Indigenous speakers and their languages. Trudgill addresses this sensitively, with ‘The Dispossessed’ sections in the chapters showing the scale of loss.
English itself faced retreat in a few cases, and the book explores how Guaraní, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and French pushed back against English in different parts of the world. But these are exceptions in the main story of English’s advance at the expense of other languages. Returning to the British Isles, Trudgill explores the retreat of languages such as Welsh, Cornish, Gaelic, Norn (spoken in the Northern Isles) and Insular Norman from 1600 onwards.
Finally, the book considers the most recent trend in the geographical spread of English: transcultural diffusion, as in Singapore. This is where communities of English as a second or additional language speakers become first-language speakers through language shift rather than the arrival of speakers from elsewhere.
I’d recommend The Long Journey of English to anyone interested in the complex history of the English language. The book shows how languages never stay still and are always evolving, as editors know very well. The journey of English won’t end here, and it is certain to have an interesting future.