Showing results for "History" in Linguistics

'A breathtaking adventure through the alphabet... An absolutely delightful read, filled with jewels of lightly worn scholarship and dazzling insight. I just couldn't recommend it more highly.' Stephen Fry 'An excellent read.' Susie Dent 'You'll never look at a keyboard the same way after reading...

Named one of America’s best professors by the Princeton Review, Christopher R. Fee invites you to explore your heritage from an unconventional angle: through the origin and development of the English language. Professor Fee is an award-winning professor and medievalist whose expertise spans...

Brought to you by Penguin. Most of us give little thought to the back of the book - it's just where you go to look things up. But here, hiding in plain sight, is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. Here we might find Butchers, to be avoided...

An enthralling tour around the rarest languages in the world. From the whistling languages of La Gomera in the Canary Islands and the Hmong people in East and Southeast Asia, to the wars and clashes in Sri Lanka and the conservation efforts in Hawaii and New Zealand, Rare Tongues draws attention...

'Marvellous . . . I read it with astonished delight . . . It is equally scholarly and entertaining.' - Jan Morris 'Quirky and compelling.' - The Times Once we've learned it as children, few of us think much of the alphabet and its familiar sing-song order. And yet the order of the alphabet, that...

Almost everyone swears, or worries about not swearing, from the two year-old who has just discovered the power of potty mouth to the grandma who wonders why every other word she hears is obscene. Whether they express anger or exhilaration, are meant to insult or to commend, swear words perform a crucial role in language. But swearing is also a uniquely well-suited lens through which to look at history, offering a fascinating record of what people care about on the deepest levels of a culture - what's divine, what's terrifying, and what's taboo.

Our names are so mundane that we barely notice them. Yet each contains countless stories of tradition and belonging - be that a legacy of colonialism or persecution, the desire to fit in, or the complex cultural inheritance from one's parents. In What's in a Name?, Sheela Banerjee unravels the personal histories of friends and family through their names. And while tracing their heritage across centuries and continents - from west London to British India, and from 1960s Jamaica to pre-Revolutionary Russia - Sheela also tells the story of twentieth-century immigration to the UK.

Experience how an isolated mountain nation defied empires to preserve one of Europe's oldest and rarest languages. Perfect for an educational commute, this sweeping historical journey transports you to the rugged Balkans, where harsh geography and stubborn clan identities forged an impenetrable...

Uncover the gripping evolution of human speech in this narrative history that turns linguistics into an epic adventure. Perfect for a curious commute or a lifelong learning journey, this immersive exploration traces our everyday vocabulary back to ancient battlefields and forgotten tribes...

A comprehensive and thought-provoking investigation into one of the most polarizing words in the English language. Few words in the English language are as misunderstood as “like.” Indeed, excessive use of this word is a surefire way to make those who pride themselves on propriety, both...

Discover the linguistic history and cultural evolution of a tribal dialect that accidentally conquered the globe. Surviving violent Viking raids, military conquests, and relentless reshaping by foreign speakers, this living language refused to die. Instead, it absorbed everything in its path to...

Discover the sweeping history of linguistics and human evolution, tracing our journey from ancient grunts to modern AI. Perfect for an educational daily commute, this thought-provoking deep dive reveals how shared sounds transformed into world-building power. Language is not merely a tool for...

An amusing, informative, controversial and utterly irreverent history of the world’s favourite word. F, U, C and K – four letters that can cause outrage, scandal, embarrassment or instant relief if you hit your thumb with a hammer. In this wide-ranging and frequently hilarious history of the...

Dive into the dramatic archaeological race to crack a linguistic code that resurrected a silenced ancient civilization. Perfect for your morning commute, this suspenseful narrative transports you to the turbulent late eighteenth century during Napoleon’s military campaign. Witness the exact...

In the early 1930s in Berlin, Germany, a group of leading Eastern European Jewish intellectuals embarked upon a project to transform the lives of millions of Yiddish-speaking Jews around the world. Their goal was to publish a popular and comprehensive Yiddish-language encyclopedia of general knowledge that would serve as a bridge to the modern world and as a guide to help its readers navigate their way within it.

'Marvellous . . . I read it with astonished delight . . . It is equally scholarly and entertaining.' - Jan Morris 'Quirky and compelling.' - The Times Once we've learned it as children, few of us think much of the alphabet and its familiar sing-song order. And yet the order of the alphabet, that...

“A fascinating look at how we talk about women. . . . Dense with information and anecdotes, Mother Tongue touches on the hilarious and the devastating, with ample dashes of an ingredient so painfully absent from most discussions of sex and gender: humor.” ―Lisa Selin Davis, The Washington...

Uncover the gripping history of the ancient artifact that cracked a lost language and birthed modern Egyptology. Perfect for your daily commute, this captivating historical narrative turns a heavy slab of black granite into the protagonist of an intellectual thriller. Journey from dusty military...

Explore the epic history of linguistics, where scribes, empires, and AI conquer human communication barriers. Perfect for your daily commute, this intellectually stimulating narrative brings forgotten unsung heroes out of the shadows. Whether you are a lifelong learner relaxing at home or a...

A fascinating history of American profanity that traces how taboo language has shaped US politics, religion, and pop culture, and how it has evolved into an expression of power and rebellion. For four hundred years, Americans have been told to watch their language. For four hundred years, they...