Robert Lawrence Trask Book order (chronological)

Covering thinkers from Aristotle to Saussure and Chomsky, this title reveals the rules and beauty that underlie language, our most human skill.

This is a major introduction to historical linguistics, designed for students who have no background in historical linguistics but who have at least some knowledge of phonetics, phonology, and morphology. The author introduces all major types of change, consequences of change (dialect andlanguage families), and methods in historical linguistics. Later chapters deal with sociolinguistic aspects of change, language contact, birth and death of languages, language and prehistory, and finally the issue of very remote relations.