Richard Hogg and David Denison (eds.), A history of the English language. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Pp. xiii, 494. Hb $140.

As languages change and show more flexibility, the need to update histories of languages such as English continues, as the editors of this book, Richard Hogg and David Denison, explain. The editors divide the book into two major parts distributed over nine chapters. One part deals with the fundamental aspects of the internal and structural history of English, and the other with the functions and varieties of the language.