Alphabet to Email explores the ever-changing relationship between speech and writing and considers the implications of current language trends on the future of written English.

In Alphabet to Email Naomi Baron takes us on a fascinating and often entertaining journey through the history of the English language, showing how technology - especially email - is gradually stripping language of its formality. Drawing together strands of thinking about writing, speech, pedagogy, technology, and globalization, Naomi Baron explores the ever-changing relationship between speech and writing and considers the implications of current language trends on the future of written English. Alphabet to Email will appeal to anyone who is curious about how the English language has changed over the centuries and where it might be going.

'Naomi Baron has succeeded in writing a fascinating yet erudite, and quite compact, history that draws together threads from a bewildering variety of sources.' - Pam Le Gassick, Society of Indexers 'At one level, Alphabet to Email is a fascinating chronological history of written English; at another, it is a carefully argued case for preserving the distinctions between oral and written language.' - Ilana Snyder, Journal of Sociolinguistics