Mastering English gathers thirty-four classic texts that chart the English language as system, history, social practice, and imaginative resource. Prescriptive grammars and schoolroom manuals stand beside philological inquiries, vocabulary guides, studies of pronunciation, dialect, and American usage, creating a richly varied archive of linguistic thought. The volume's range—from practical instruction to playful verbal observation and historical speculation—reveals how debates over "correc...

Walter Ripman's "The Sounds of Spoken English" is a seminal work that meticulously explores the phonetics and phonology of English in its spoken form. Ripman employs a clear, analytical literary style, integrating both theoretical frameworks and practical applications to elucidate the nuances of English sound systems. His exploration is set against the backdrop of early 20th-century linguistics, marked by a growing interest in the relationship between spoken language and its written counte...