accent: a way of speaking typical of a particular group of people and especially of the natives or residents of a region dialect: a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other

"Proper English" by Robert Wardhaugh is a good overview of the history of English prescriptive grammar.

You're very welcome, Sandie. As to books and websites on grammar, you have to be very, very careful. Traditional grammars, the kind that are found most in bookstores, are full of inaccuracies on language. In many cases these inaccuracies have been

Prescriptive Grammar - Centuries of Error HOW GRAMMARS OF ENGLISH HAVE MISSED THE BOAT THERE'S BEEN MORE FLUMMOXING THAN MEETS THE EYE Charles-James N. Bailey Consider the possibility that English grammar has been misanalysed for

That's an interesting thought, Paco. At first glance, I would guess that ditransitive French verbs had to take 'de' or 'à' or an indirect object pronoun, which means the structure differs slightly: 1. Il a vendu le vélo à MrP. 2. Il lui a

Hi, this is just a cut & paste job from various internet resources: 1 The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology 2 The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar 3 Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language 4 The Concise Oxford