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Preface
ThepresentshortoutlineofthehistoricaldevelopmentoftheEnglish
languageischieflyintendedasatextbookforthestudentsoftheDepart-
mentsofEnglishinPolishuniversitieswhoarerequiredtotakeacourseof
theHistoryofEnglish.Also,otherstudentsandnon-professionalreaders
interestedinEnglishmayfinditausefulsourceofinformation.
Themainobjectiveofthebookistoofferinaformasconciseaspos-
sibleapresentationofthemajoraspectsofthehistoryofEnglish,both
externalandinternal.Thus,apartfromtheessentialdataconcerningthekey
developmentsinEnglishhistorywhichmoreorlessdirectlyinfluencedthe
evolutionofthelanguage,thetextbookpresentssamplequotations,briefas
arule,fromvariousdocuments,andshortpassagesfromliterarytexts.
TheinternalhistoryofEnglishincludesthedescriptionoftheevolution
ofphonology,morphology,lexicon,dialectsandvarietiesofEnglish.For
shortageofspace,theauthorhadtoconcentrateonthoseaspectsoflinguis-
ticchangewhichdirectlycontributedtothecurrentshapeoftheEnglish
language.Therefore,theusersofthebookareencouragedtorefertoother
standardtextbooksofthehistoryofEnglishorhistoricalgrammarslistedin
theBibliographywheretheywillfindanswerstoquestionswhichmayarise
afterreadingthepresenttextbook.Inordertofacilitatetheunderstandingof
theshorttextsinterpolatedthroughoutthebook,thereadersaresupplied
withalistoftranslationsofmoredifficultwordswhosesensetheymay
findobscure.Suchinformationplacedimmediatelyafterthetextquoted
willallowthestudent,itishoped,totranslateandinterpretthepassagead-
duced.TheadditionaltextsofferedintheAppendixaredesignedforthose
studentswhomaybeinterestedintranslatingthemwithouttheteacher's
help,usinganOldorMiddleEnglishdictionary.
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