Description or summary of the book: In this unique new history of the world's most ubiquitous language, linguistics expert David Crystal draws on words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences, and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the first definitively English word was written down in the fifth century ('roe,' in case you are wondering). Featuring Latinate and Celtic words, weasel words and nonce-words, ancient words ('loaf') to cutting-edge words ('twittersphere'), and spanning the indispensable words that shape our tongue ('and,' 'what') to the more fanciful ('fopdoodle'), Crystal takes us along the winding byways of language via the rude, the obscure, and the downright surprising.
Estimated reading time (average reader): 8H20M49S
Other categories, genre or collection: Reference Works, Historical & Comparative Linguistics
Available formats: TCR, AZW3, BMP, WORD, PDF, EPUB, TXT, DOC. Compressed in RAR, ZIP, CAB, LHA