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May We Borrow Your Language?: How English Steals Words from All Over the World
Philip Gooden
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Description for May We Borrow Your Language?: How English Steals Words from All Over the World
Paperback. A richly entertaining exploration of the origins of the words that English has borrowed from other languages over its 1500-year history. Num Pages: 336 pages. BIC Classification: 2AB; CBX. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 198 x 129. . Good clean copy with some minor shelf wear.
The English language that is spoken by one billion people around the world is a linguistic mongrel, its vocabulary a diverse mix resulting from centuries of borrowing from other tongues. From the Celtic languages of pre-Roman Britain to Norman French; from the Vikings' Old Scandinavian to Persian, Arawak, Cantonese, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Inuit and Erdu - amongst a host of others - we have enriched our modern language with such words as tulip, slogan, doolally, avocado, moccasin, ketchup and ukulele. May We Borrow Your Language? explores the intriguing and unfamiliar stories behind scores of familiar words ... Read more
The English language that is spoken by one billion people around the world is a linguistic mongrel, its vocabulary a diverse mix resulting from centuries of borrowing from other tongues. From the Celtic languages of pre-Roman Britain to Norman French; from the Vikings' Old Scandinavian to Persian, Arawak, Cantonese, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Inuit and Erdu - amongst a host of others - we have enriched our modern language with such words as tulip, slogan, doolally, avocado, moccasin, ketchup and ukulele. May We Borrow Your Language? explores the intriguing and unfamiliar stories behind scores of familiar words ... Read more
Product Details
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2017
Publisher
Head of Zeus
Condition
Used, Very Good
Number of Pages
336
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9781786694553
SKU
KKD0000359
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 2 to 4 working days
Ref
99-1
About Philip Gooden
Philip Gooden writes books about language as well as historical crime novels. The former include Who's Whose? A No-Nonsense Guide to Easily-Confused Words, The Story of English, and (as co-author) Idiomantics and The Word at War.
Reviews for May We Borrow Your Language?: How English Steals Words from All Over the World
'Engrossing ... hugely informative and fun' Nudge Book. 'Written with wit and aplomb as he reveals the history and details on words as diverse as cwen, lust, delphinan and bathos ... It is a worthy addition for anyone with an etymological collection of books, and if you like Mark Forsyth this is right up your street' Half Man, Half Book ... Read more