'A persuasive and beautifully written take on how languages are constantly evolving... an enthralling read about human psychology and anthropology as well as linguistics.' ALEX BELLOS ___________________________________ 'Language is mankind's greatest invention - except of course, that it was never invented'. So begins Guy Deutscher's fascinating investigation into the evolution of language. No one believes that the Roman Senate sat down one day to design the complex system that is Latin grammar, and few believe, these days, in the literal truth of the story of the Tower of Babel. But then how did there come to be so many languages, and of such elaborate design? If we started off with rudimentary utterances on the level of 'man throw spear', how did we end up with sophisticated grammars, enormous vocabularies, and intricately nuanced shades of meaning? Drawing on recent, groundbreaking discoveries in modern linguistics, Deutscher exposes the elusive forces of creation at work in human communication. Along the way, we learn why German maidens are neuter while German turnips are female, why we have feet not foots, and how great changes in pronunciation may result from simple laziness... _____________________ 'Powerful and thrilling' SPECTATOR 'Really ought to be read by anyone who persists in complaining that the English language is going to the dogs' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'I was enthralled' A.S. Byatt, for GUARDIAN 'Books of the Year' 'Highly original... clever and convincing... this book will stretch your mind' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Fascinating' BOSTON GLOBE

There are some 6,500 different languages in the world; they belong to around 250 distinct families and conform to numerous grammatical types. This book investigates why diversity arose, how it relates to the origins and evolution of language and culture, and whether the uneven distribution of human languages may be linked with patterns of human geography and history. Daniel Nettle draws on work in anthropology, linguistics, geography, archaeology, and evolutionary science to explain linguistic diversity. He writes clearly and accessibly: his book will appeal broadly across the human and natural sciences, as well as to the informed general reader.

Diachronic Prototype Semantics is concerned with the theory of explanation of changes in word meaning. The author demonstrates the explanatory value of the prototype model of meaning, in which the distinction between central and peripheral senses of a word is crucial.

In the most reliable and readable guide to effective writing for the Americans of today, Wilson answers questions of meaning, grammar, pronunciation, punctuation, and spelling in thousands of clear, concise entries. His guide is unique in presenting a systematic, comprehensive view of language as determined by context. Wilson provides a simple chart of contexts -- from oratorical speech to intimate, from formal writing to informal -- and explains in which contexts a particular usage is appropriate, and in which it is not.

The Columbia Guide to Standard Written American English provides the answers to questions about American English the way no other guide can with:

* an A--Z format for quick reference;

* over five thousand entries, more than any other usage book;

* sensible and useful advice based on the most current linguistic research;

* a convenient chart of levels of speech and writing geared to context;

* both descriptive and prescriptive entries for guidance;

* guidelines for nonsexist usage;

* individual entries for all language terms.

A vibrant description of how our language is being spoken and written at the end of the twentieth century -- and how we ourselves can use it most effectively -- The Columbia Guide to Standard American English is the ideal handbook to language etiquette: friendly, sensible, and reliable.

Although the large Hispanic community of Los Angeles is basically a geographically stable urban community, bound by historical, social, linguistic, and cultural factors, both its boundaries and its internal structure are impermanent and undergoing constant change. In this original study of Spanish-English bilinguals in Los Angeles County, Carmen Silva-Corvalan explores in depth the linguistic, cognitive, and social processes underlying language maintenance, as well as changes characteristic of language shift and loss. She brings together analytical techniques employed in sociolinguistics, functional syntax, and discourse analysis.

This dictionary, first published in 1994, is a vast collection of English words and multiword lexical units borrowed from the German language. It contains over 6,000 entries. This dictionary also includes the first recorded date of the German loan in English, the semantic area, variant forms, etymology, a definition of the English word, a listing of derivative forms and often grammatical comment for each word. It also provides original, nontechnical essays on the chronological sequencing of German loans in English and their relationship to historical events and people, and on the linguistic phenomena, processes and concepts involved in borrowing. The entries in this dictionary will intrigue cultural historians. Students of the history of the English language and of language contact and change will find the book invaluable. Essential for German-language scholars and historians with a special interest in German influence on Anglo-American culture.

The Cambridge Thesaurus of American English is an original and up-to-date collection of over 200,000 synonyms and antonyms for the most commonly used words and phrases in contemporary American English. Compiled by renowned expert on American language use and author of Doublespeak, William Lutz, the Thesaurus is alphabetically arranged, and designed to give the user quick access to a coherent set of synonyms and antonyms. The Cambridge Thesaurus provides a brief list of common, usable synonyms organized according to their frequency of use and their meaning. In those cases where the distinction between senses of a word is not clear, a brief definition is provided. Any synonyms that are slang or that have restricted usage are clearly labeled to that effect. Concise and readable yet complete and reliable, The Cambridge Thesaurus will be the ideal desktop reference for high school and college students, office personnel, and anyone else in search of that perfect word.

American Speech, the journal of the American Dialect Society has for fifty years included a regular collection of neologisms called "Among the New Words." A recent issue, for example, includes four quotations for "date rape," two for "designated driver," and six for "DNA fingerprinting," "intifada," and other current terms. Complete documentation is given for all citations, which are fuller than those given in most dictionaries and both British and American sources have been consulted. At the time these terms appeared in "Among the New Words," they appeared in none of the major dictionaries. A survey of "Among the New Words" can therefore reveal much about the origin and early use of these expressions and the social climate in which they prospered. Now for the first time, this valuable resource will be available in one volume. The original articles themselves are reproduced and John Algeo has prepared a complete index, with glossary, to every word and expression included in the 113 installments of "Among the New Words." In addition, he has written several introductory essays exploring both the linguistic and social implications of new words as revealed in this collection. No other collection of new words has been so systematically compiled over such a long period, demonstrating changing word patterns and social norms over five decades. None has been prepared with such thorough and accurate documentation. It is a unique repository of language use from 1941-1991. John Algeo currently co-edits "Among the New Words."

Audio recordings of English are available from the first half of the twentieth century and thus complement the written data sources for the recent history of the language. This book is the first to bring together a team of globally recognised scholars to document and analyse these early recordings in a single volume. Looking at examples of regional varieties of English from England, Scotland, Ireland, the USA, Canada and other anglophone countries, the volume explores both standard and vernacular varieties, and demonstrates how accents of English have changed between the late nineteenth century and the present day. The socio-phonetic examinations of the recordings will be of interest to scholars of historical linguistics, the history of the English language, language variation and change, phonetics, and phonology.

This audio recording, which accompanies the Luath Scots Language Learner book, conveys the authentic pronunciation, especially important to readers from outside Scotland. It is suitable as an introductory course or for those interested in reacquainting themselves with the language of childhood and grandparents. There are dictionaries and grammar books but this is the first-ever language course. The book assumes no prior knowledge on the reader's part. Starting from the most basic vocabulary and constructions, the reader is guided step-by-step through Scots vocabulary and the subtleties of grammar and idiom that distinguish Scots from English.

Can ghoti really be pronounced as fish? Why is "o" short in glove and love, but long in rove and cove? Why do English words carry such extra baggage as the silent "b" in doubt, the silent "k" in knee, and the silent "n" in autumn? And why do names like Phabulous Phoods and Hi-Ener-G stand out? Addressing these and many other questions about letters and the sounds they make, this engaging volume provides a comprehensive analysis of American English spelling and pronunciation. Venezky illuminates the fully functional system underlying what can at times be a bewildering array of exceptions, focusing on the basic units that serve to signal word form or pronunciation, where these units can occur within words, and how they relate to sound. Also examined are how our current spelling system has developed, efforts to reform it, and ways that spelling rules or patterns are violated in commercial usage. From one of the world's foremost orthographic authorities, the book affords new insight into the teaching of reading and the acquisition and processing of spelling sound relationships.

Every page in this new volume of the "Dictionary of American Regional English" makes it wonderfully clear that regional expressions still flourish throughout the United States.

Depending on where you live, your conversation may include such beguiling terms as "paddybass" (North Carolina), "pinkwink" (Cape Cod), or "scallyhoot" (West); if you're invited to a potluck dinner, in Indiana you're likely to call it a "pitch-in," while in northern Illinois it's a "scramble"; if your youngsters play hopscotch, they may call it "potsy" in Manhattan, but "sky blue" in Chicago.

Like the popular first three volumes of "DARE," the fourth is a treasure-trove of linguistic gems, a book that invites exclamation, delight, and wonder. More than six hundred maps pinpoint where you might live if your favorite card games are sheepshead and skat; if you eat "pan dulce" rather than "pain perdu"; if you drive down a "red dog road" or make a purchase at a "racket store"; or if you look out your window and see a "parka squirrel" or a "quill pig."

The language of our everyday lives is captured in "DARE," along with expressions our grandparents used but our children will never know. Based on thousands of interviews across the country, the "Dictionary of American Regional English" presents our language in its infinite variety. Word lovers will delight in the wit and wisdom found in the quotations that illustrate each entry, and will prize the richness and diversity of our spoken and written culture.

The Handbook of Dialectology provides an authoritative, up-to-date and unusually broad account of the study of dialect, in one volume. Each chapter reviews essential research, and offers a critical discussion of the past, present and future development of the area. * The volume is based on state-of-the-art research in dialectology around the world, providing the most current work available with an unusually broad scope of topics * Provides a practical guide to the many methodological and statistical issues surrounding the collection and analysis of dialect data * Offers summaries of dialect variation in the world s most widely spoken and commonly studied languages, including several non-European languages that have traditionally received less attention in general discussions of dialectology * Reviews the intellectual development of the field, including its main theoretical schools of thought and research traditions, both academic and applied * The editors are well known and highly respected, with a deep knowledge of this vast field of inquiry

Compared with the 1978 version (2,384 titles), the new edition of the Bibliography now boasts 3,600 entries on dialect research in the German-speaking Southwest. Alongside specifically dialectological writings, they also encompass studies of regional usage past and present (e.g., legal and official language, older dramas and poetic works, present-day spoken German in the Southwest) and relevant literature from neighbouring fields (folklore studies, history of law). Two newly designed maps indicate the areas covered by all the dialectographic studies listed.

Susan Buck-Morss examines and stresses the significance of Critical Theory for young West Germ intellectuals after World War II. Looking at the differences between German and American situations during this time period, Origin of Negative Dialectics convincingly sketches the learning process that ended in antagonism. "[The Origin of Negative Dialectics] is by far the best introduction for the American reader to the complex, esoteric, and illusive structure of thought of one of the most seminal Marxian thinkers of the twentieth century. It belongs on the same shelf as Martin Jay's history of the Frankfurt School, The Dialectical Imagination." - Lewis A. Coser, State University of New York, Stony Brook

Heller and McElhinny reinterpret sociolinguistics for the twenty-first century with an original approach to the study of language that is situated in the political and economic contexts of colonialism and capitalism. In the process, they map out a critical history of how language serves, and has served, as a terrain for producing and reproducing social inequalities. The authors ask how, and by whom, ideas about language get unevenly shaped, offering new perspectives that will excite readers and incite further research for years to come.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.

"Rich and powerful—and funky and bold—dissects black writing and speech, its grammar and history, its controversy, and the media coverage of it. . . . A book that’s truly da bomb."—Geneva Smitherman

"The language, only the language. . . . It’s a love, a passion. Its function is like a preacher’s: to make you stand up out of your seat, make you lose yourself and hear yourself. The worst of all possible things that could happen would be to lose that language."—Toni Morrison (1981)

Claude Brown called it "Spoken Soul." Legendary author James Baldwin referred to it as "incredible music." Writers from Paul Laurence Dunbar to Toni Morrison and Alice Walker have employed it to fully convey the experiences of black America.

In Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English, scholar and linguistics expert John R. Rickford and journalist Russell J. Rickford offer a fascinating, definitive history of the use of Black English in literature, the performing arts, religion, and everyday conversation. The Rickfords also explore America’s love/hate relationship with Black English and its role in our ongoing dialogue about why and how race matters.

From our embrace of Black English as the language of jazz, funk, hip-hop, and rap, to the media-fanned furor surrounding proposals to use Ebonics as a springboard to teaching Standard English, Black English is as deeply rooted in America’s politics as it is in America’s culture. The Rickfords scrupulously show how education, the media, and society have been affected by the power and tenacity of Spoken Soul.

If you love words or are interested in the connection between language and identity, Spoken Soul will intrigue and enlighten you.

"Spoken Soul brilliantly fills a huge gap. . . a delightfully readable introduction to the elegant interweave between the language and its culture, its admirable linguistic structure, its multifaceted history, and its potential use in education."—Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown university
"Spoken Soul provides a profound portrait of the power, passion, and poignancy of Black English beyond the Ebonics controversy and the perplexing paradox of linguistic prejudice."—John Baugh, Stanford University, author of Black Street Speech

In Praise of African American Vernacular English
"It possesses a pronounced lyrical quality which is frequently incompatible with any music other than that ceaselessly and relentlessly driving rhythm from poignantly spent lives."—Claude Brown (1968)

" . . . this passion, this skill, this incredible music." —James Baldwin (1978)

"Three qualities of Black English—the presence of life, voice, and clarity—testify to a distinct black value system."—June Jordan (1985)

"That mainstream English is essential to our self-preservation is indisputable. . . but it is not necessary to abandon Spoken Soul to master Standard English, any more than it is necessary to abandon English to learn French or to deprecate jazz to appreciate classical music."—John R. Rickford and Russell J. Rickford (2000)

One of the best ways to learn a language is by studying the media that native speakers themselves listen to and read, and popular songs can also reveal much about the culture and traditions of an area where the language is spoken. Following on the success of his Kilma Hilwa: Egyptian Arabic through Popular Songs (AUC Press, 2015), Cairo-based Arabic teacher Bahaa Ed-Din Ossama now brings together twenty songs in Modern Standard Arabic performed by popular singers of the Arab world from Abd al-Halim Hafez to Fairouz and builds a variety of language lessons around them, with notes on vocabulary, grammar, and usage, and communicative exercises in listening, writing, and speaking. The songs are graded from easiest to most difficult, and each lesson includes a link to a performance of the song on YouTube, the lyrics of the song, and notes on the songwriter, the composer, and the singer. Students using this unique book will not only improve their Arabic skills but will also gain an insight into the cultural landscape of the Arab world. The book can be used in the classroom or for self-study.Includes songs by: Abd al-Halim Hafez, Fairouz, Fuad Abd al-Magid, Karem Mahmoud, Kazem al-Saher, Muhammad Abd al-Wahab, Nagat al-Saghira, Rima Khashish, and Umm Kulthum.

Cet ouvrage A(c)tudie les particularismes du franAais parlA(c) dans les A(R)les de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon. Au noyau primitif de la population, constituA(c) pour l'essentiel d'Acadiens, se sont joints au cours des 19e et 20e siA]cles des pAacheurs venus des cAtes de Normandie, de Bretagne, du Pays Basque ou de Terre-Neuve. Le franAais parlA(c) dans l'archipel se caractA(c)rise surtout par son lexique. Le dictionnaire proprement dit comporte plus de 1500 entrA(c)es sous lesquelles sont notA(c)s des mots, des emplois ou des locutions qu'ignorent les dictionnaires les dictionnaires du franAais contemporain ou auxquels ils assignent un usage restreint. Une brA]ve notice historique tente de dA(c)terminer pour chaque cas par quelle voie le particularisme s'est implantA(c) dans le franAais de l'archipel. Les concordances avec l'acadien sont nombreuses, mais les emprunts au parler des terre-neuvas donnent une physionomie originale A ce franAais d'AmA(c)rique du Nord. En fin d'ouvrage, un index regroupe tous les faits lexicaux par champs sA(c)mantiques.

For the 411 on American slang, this guidebook is the top banana. .

From "head trip" to "foot in mouth," "American Slang Dictionary" gives you the complete definitions of thousands of uniquely American words and phrases, ranging from golden oldies such as "catch some rays" and "take the fifth" to more up-to-the-minute coinages like Wall Street's "jonx," the Internet's "ping," and the gangsta's favorite, "shizzle.," .

Inside you'll find more than 12,000 words and expressions from a wide variety of sources, including gangsta rap, the blogosphere, and the U.S. prison system. In a New York minute, you'll be down with the colloquialisms, vulgarities, and substandard English that make everyday interactions in contemporary American life so colorful.. .

BSOD or blue screen of death the blue computer screen that appears after a programming or operational error
. crunk wild; crazy; out of control
. kvetch to complain
. left-handed monkey wrench a nonexistent tool
. word of mouse a message spread by e-mail
. . .

Slang, however one judges it, shows us at our most human. It is used widely and often, typically associated with the writers of noir fiction, teenagers, and rappers, but also found in the works of Shakespeare and Dickens. It has been recorded since at least 1500 AD, and today's vocabulary, taken from every major English-speaking country, runs to over 125,000 slang words and phrases. This Very Short Introduction takes readers on a wide-ranging tour of this fascinating sub-set of the English language. It considers the meaning and origins of the word 'slang' itself, the ideas that a make a word 'slang', the long-running themes that run through slang, and the history of slang's many dictionaries. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A lively, authoritative, and up-to-date look at the world of rhyming slang, from its origins in London's 19th-century underworld to the buzzwords of 21st-century popney. Arranged by topic, including Crime, Food and Drink, Illness, Money, Sex, and Sport, this highly readable collection is at once an informative source to the story behind some of our most lively expressions and a browser's delight.

Swearing is a fascinating thing. Almost everyone does it, or worries about not doing it, from the two year old who has just discovered the power of the potty mouth to the grandma who wonders why every other word she hears is obscene. But more than its cultural ubiquity, swearing is also interesting for what it tells us about language and society, today and in the past. It is a record of what people care about on the deepest levels of a culture- what's divine, what's terrifying, and what's taboo. Holy Sh*t tells the story of two kinds of swearing - obscenities and oaths - from ancient Rome and the Bible to today. With humor and insight, Melissa Mohr takes readers on a journey to discover how 'swearing' has come to include both testifying to the truth with your hand on the Bible and calling someone a *#$&!* when they cut you off on the highway. Mohr explores obscenities in ancient Rome-remarkably similar to some of the things you might hear on the street today-and unearths the history of religious oaths in the Middle Ages, when swearing was a matter of life and death. Holy Sh*t also explains the advancement of civility and corresponding censorship of language in the 18th century; considers the rise of racial slurs after World War II; and answers a question that preoccupies the FCC, the U.S. Senate, and anyone who has overheard little kids at a playground recently-are we swearing more now than people did in the past? A gem of lexicography and cultural history, Holy Sh*t is a serious exploration of obscenity - and might just expand your repertoire of words to choose from the next time you shut your finger in the car door.

The Pocket Scots Dictionary, based on the Concise Scots Dictionary, provides information on Scots language for the general public and for schools in a compact and user-friendly form. * Scots words old and new, general and local * Clear, simple definitions * Pronunciation guide for difficult words * Literary uses as in Burns and Scott * Brief history of Scots