Quote:
Originally Posted by Little.Egret
The Prodigal Tongue
Buy it, you'll love it
first and perhaps only book on the relative merits of American and British English that is dominated by facts and analysis rather than nationalistic prejudice. For all its scholarship, this is also a funny and rollicking read.’
The Economist, Books of the Year
Only an American would call autumn fall or refer to a perfectly good pavement as a sidewalk… Not so, says Lynne Murphy. The English invented sidewalk in the seventeenth century and in 1693 John Dryden wrote the line, ‘Or how last fall he raised the weekly bills.’
Perhaps we don’t know our own language quite as well as we thought.
Murphy, an American linguist in Britain, dissects the myths surrounding British and American English in a laugh-out-loud exploration of how language works and where it's going.
https://theprodigaltongue.com/
Thoughtful, funny, and approachable... The book's momentum comes from Murphy's witty presentation, but its real power comes from its commitment to inquiry and its profound belief that 'communication involves a million little acts of faith.' --Publishers Weekly
Check ✔ The publisher changed the ASIN so no previous purchase check.
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07ZWKQLZN/ |
Still recommended, 99p again for September.