Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English
Over the centuries, linguist John McWhorter (The Power of Babel) tells us, the English language has evolved in quirky ways. In fact, as he demonstrates convincingly, our "magnificent bastard tongue" has absorbed an onerous number of the grammatical equivalents of vestigial organs. Without a hint...
show more
Over the centuries, linguist John McWhorter (The Power of Babel) tells us, the English language has evolved in quirky ways. In fact, as he demonstrates convincingly, our "magnificent bastard tongue" has absorbed an onerous number of the grammatical equivalents of vestigial organs. Without a hint of dry pedantry, he escorts readers on a brisk Cook's tour of English's knotty origins and strange permutations.
show less
Format: ebook
ISBN:
9781440634048 (1440634041)
Publish date: October 30th 2008
Publisher: Gotham Books
Pages no: 256
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
History,
Reference,
Humanities,
Language,
Literature,
Science,
Philosophy,
Sociology,
Anthropology,
Microhistory
On TBR because of Manny's review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/86692663
McWhorter presents the reader with a mystery: why does English have the particular grammatical quirks that it does? He then proceeds to make a convincing, and amusing case for the culprits he has identified, notably by comparison to other times and places where languages have been brought together. ...
Never thought Linguistics can be so much fun! Too many details to discuss. But if you ever wondered why, for instance, "you" has the same form for both singular and plural, why we say "aren't I" instead of the more logical "amn't I", why we use the meaningless "do" or "they" as a singular pronoun in...
A fantastic book! I have not come across anyone, not even Steven Pinker, who does such a good job of showing you how exciting linguistics can be. His bold and unconventional history of the English language was full of ideas I'd never seen before, but which made excellent sense. And, before I get int...
This is an extraordinarily delightful little book that highlights some of English's lesser known idiosyncrasies because, as the author notes, English is not just a collection of words, nor is its genius an markedly unusual openness to new vocabulary.I first encountered John McWhorter with his book T...
Log in with Facebook 
