Language & Literature

Explore literary treasures, everyday ephemera, and the complex history of the English language, with unique texts from the British Library.

In this section...

Sounds Familiar?

Travel through the country in this website, and discover the UK’s rich landscape of diverse accents and dialects.
Enter Sounds Familiar?

See how the English language has been altered, expanded, subverted and experimented with for hundreds of years.
Enter Changing Language

Rifle through six hundred years of recipes and remedies, from medieval potions and pies to 1920s cocktails.
Enter Books for Cooks

From recipes and adverts to logbooks and songs, explore the many ways in which language is used and produced.
Enter Texts in Context

Trace the history of dictionaries, from scoundrels’ slang books to Caribbean lexicons.
Enter Dictionaries and Meanings

From Shakespeare to Alice, take a tour of some of the British Library’s finest literary treasures.
Enter English Literature

Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices explores the English language in all its national and international diversity.

Timelines: Sources from History has been announced winner of the Innovation Award at the 2010 Museums & Heritage Awards.