A thorough and fascinating exploration of the evolution of English' phonological structure, this book traces the history of individual sounds and their representation through Old, Middle, Early Modern and Present Day English. Written in an engaging and accessible style, the book covers the sounds of English, consonantal histories, Middle English dialects, vowel quality and quantity in Early Modern English, the English stress system and Early English verse forms to demonstrate how the present form of the language is indebted to its past. Key Features: Places linguistic findings into historical, literary and social contextsExplains Modern English's phonological features in terms of its developmentAdditional exercises, references and suggestions for further reading will be available on the book's webpage