Spellbound: The Surprising Origins and Astonishing Secrets of English SpellingRandom House Publishing Group, 1. 5. 2007 - Počet stran: 336 Welcome to the illogical, idiosyncratic, outrageous linguistic phenomenon known as the English language. The story of how this ragtag collection of words evolved is a winding tale replete with intriguing accidents and bizarre twists of fate. In this eye-opening, fabulously entertaining book, James Essinger unlocks the mysteries that have confounded linguists and scholars for millennia. From the sophisticated writing systems of the ancient Sumerians through the tongue twisters of Middle English, the popular National Spelling Bee, and the mobile phone text-messaging of today, Spellbound chronicles the fascinating history of English spelling, including insights about the vast number of words English has borrowed from other languages (“orange,” “vanilla,” and “ketchup,” to name a few), and how their meanings differ from country to country. Featuring a lively cast of characters ranging from the fictional to the historically noteworthy (Chaucer, Samuel Johnson, Noah Webster, Shakespeare, Bill Gates), this affectionate tribute to English spelling shows why our whimsical, capricious common language continues to hold us spellbound. |
Obsah
Method in the Madness? | 3 |
Visible Thought | 39 |
Alphabetsthe Upsides and Downsides | 67 |
Autorská práva | |
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Spellbound: The Surprising Origins and Astonishing Secrets of English Spelling James Essinger Zobrazení fragmentů - 2007 |
Spellbound: The Surprising Origins and Astonishing Secrets of English Spelling James Essinger Náhled není k dispozici. - 2007 |
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Alfred Alfred Jewel alphabetic writing system American English ancient Anglo Anglo-Saxon word b-sound borrowed Britain British English Canterbury Caxton Celts century A.D. Chinese Christopher Ball completely consonant culture derived dialect Dictionary e-mail Egyptian hieroglyphs England English language English spelling system English words evolved example fact Finnish foreign words Germanic language Gothic Goths Greek Greek alphabet guage hieroglyph Icelandic Indo-European invention Johnson king known language family Latin word linguistic literate living logograms logographic look magical matter meaning meant Middle English Middle English period misspelled modern English Norman French original particular phabet phonemes printers printing pronounced pronunciation reason reform regional represent Roman alphabet runes scholars scribes seen Semitic sense speak speakers Spellbound spelling standard spoken language survived symbols th-sound thing thorn tion translation Ulfilas verb Vikings vowel sound Webster West Saxon written English