"This book is mainly concerned with English as it has been spoken du ring the last four or five centuries."--Introd., p. 1.

Alphabetical list of sources, fifteenth to eighteenth centuries (p. [xi]-xv)--Remarks on phonetic notation.--Table of phonetic symbols used in this book.--Introductory.--Dialect types in Middle English and thei r survival in the modern period.--The English of the fifteenth century. --The English language from Henry VIII to James I.--The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.--The history of English pronunciation in the mod ern period; the vowels in stressed syllables.--The vowels of unstressed syllables.--Changes in consonantal sounds.--Notes on inflexions.--Coll oquial idiom.--Appendices.--Supplementary.