La primera edición fue publicada en 1964 por English Universities Press
Contens: Parte one: language in general,Signals in the dark; The instruments os speech; Bangs, hisses, and buzzes; Flutes and lutes; Sound in action; Sound in space: Adventures od an alphabet; words; Sentences and The science of linguistics. Part two: Languages in particular: Learning foreign languages; Language families; The tongue of the britisch; Learning teutonic languages; Daughters of latin; Piercing the iron curtain; Malay; The breaking of Babel and The future of english.