Using non-technical language The Earliest English' provides a comprehensive introduction to the evolution of Old English Language and Literature for introductory students of English Language and Linguistics.

In eight carefully structured units, the authors show how the vocabulary of Old English contains many items familiare to us today; how its characteristics poetic form is based on a beautiful and intricate simplicity; how its patterns of word building and inflectional strucutre are paralleled in several present day languages and how and why the English language and its literature continued to change so that by the mid 12th century the English language looks more like the 'English' that we are familiar with today.