English & How It Got That Way

Publisher: Harper Perennial
Year: 1991
Leaves: 272
Category: Fiction

No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.

✦ Synopsis

With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson--the acclaimed author of The Lost Continent--brilliantly explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language. From the first descent of the larynx into the throat (why you can talk but your dog can't), to the fine lost art of swearing, Bryson tells the fascinating, often uproarious story of an inadequate, second-rate tongue of peasants that developed into one of the world's largest growth industries.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 2
The World's A Language......Page 3
THE DAWN OF LANGUAGE......Page 13
The Global Language......Page 27
The First Thousand Years......Page 38
Where Words Come From......Page 59
Pronunciation......Page 76
Varieties of English......Page 91
Spelling......Page 109
Good English and Bad......Page 126
Order Out of Chaos......Page 139
Old World, New World......Page 153
English as a World Language......Page 171
Names......Page 188
Swearing......Page 206
Wordplay......Page 217
The Future of English......Page 231

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