William Tyndale and the English Language

Name: William Tyndale and the English Language
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ISBN: 9781851246656

David Crystal

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English

Bodleian Library
12 March 2026

Historical & comparative linguistics; Literature, Poetry & Criticism

This book is a pioneering exploration of Tyndale's enormous impact on the development of the English language.

'Dearly beloved', 'say the word', 'the powers that be', 'for ever and ever'

these familiar phrases and many more were set down in print for the first time by William Tyndale. For his groundbreaking English translation of the Bible, he deliberately chose to write in a way that could be understood by the widest possible audience.

In the first half of this pioneering exploration of the extraordinary impact Tyndale's writing had on the development of the English language, David Crystal provides an analysis of his prose style, demonstrating its character as a novel genre of 'written speech', and bringing to light the remarkable number of cases where Tyndale is the first recorded user of a word or phrase in English. He also draws attention to the hitherto unrecognised role of Tyndale as an early lexicographer. The second half of the book is a linguistic detective story, devising an innovative lexical and grammatical metric to investigate the often-stated claim that eighty per cent of later biblical translations display Tyndale's influence. The result is a fascinating exploration of the work of the Father of the English Bible.

By: David Crystal
Imprint: Bodleian Library
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781851246656
ISBN 10: 1851246657
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 12 March 2026
Audience: Adult education , Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

David Crystal is a writer, editor, lecturer and broadcaster on language, and honorary professor of linguistics at Bangor University. His many books include The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (CUP 3rd edn, 2019), A Date with Language (Bodleian Library Publishing, 2023) and Bookish Words (Bodleian Library Publishing, 2025).