The Story of English

{{Short description|1986 nine-part television series}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

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The Story of English is a nine-part television series, produced in 1986, detailing the development of the English language.{{cite news |last1=Davenport |first1=Anne Azzi |last2=Brown |first2=Jeffrey |title=Robert MacNeil, co-founder of NewsHour, dies at 93 |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/robert-macneil-co-founder-of-newshour-dies-at-93 |access-date=13 April 2024 |work=PBS NewsHour |publisher=PBS |date=12 April 2024}}

The Story of English is also a companion book, also produced in 1986.

The book and the television series were written by Robert MacNeil, Robert McCrum, and William Cran.{{cite book | last = McCrum | first = Robert | author-link = Robert McCrum | author2 = Robert MacNeil | author2-link = Robert MacNeil | author3 = William Cran | author3-link = William Cran | title = The Story of English | publisher = Viking | location = New York | year = 1986 | isbn = 0-670-80467-3 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/storyofenglish000mccr }} The book has been revised twice, once in 1993, and again in 2002.{{ISBN|0-14-015405-1}} and {{ISBN|0-14-200231-3}}

The documentary series was directed by William Cran,{{IMDb title|0198245|The Story of English}} and originally broadcast on the BBC, then later on PBS. It was co-produced by MacNeil-Lehrer Productions and the BBC, and was principally funded through a grant from General Foods. The third episode, "A Muse of Fire", won the 1987 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Programming - Writing.{{cite web|url=https://www.emmys.com/shows/story-english-muse-fire|title=Primetime Emmy Award Database - The Story of English |publisher=Emmys.com |accessdate=2024-06-15}} The series was released as a 5 tape box set in 2001, running 495 minutes.

The book and series have been used in university courses.{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://ling.cornell.edu/teachling/AV/story.html |date=* |title=The Story of English Video Series - contents listing, including timecode descriptions }}[http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~grabe/syllabus121.html ENG 121: The Story of English] — a Northern Arizona University course using The Story of English as its base.{{Cite web|url=https://galaxy.opensyllabus.org/#!work/51539629252|title=Open Syllabus Project - Story of English|last=|first=|date=|website=galaxy.opensyllabus.org|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-07-22}}