Fun popular linguistics tour of the history of the English language from early Angles/Saxons/Jutes/Picts to modern innovations, told by examining the etymology and context of 100 individual words - from 'loaf' to 'twittersphere' - showcasing the amazing adaptability of the language. English hasn...
This isn't so much an overview of orthography as it is a overview of English history as it relates to spelling. I guess I was looking more for the "how" than the "why" behind why English spelling is so unpredictable. Crystal would say that it's not so unpredictable once one understands the origi...
We are living through the consequences of a linguistic revolution. Dramatic linguistic change has left us at the beginning of a new era in the evolution of human language, with repercussions for many individual languages.In this book, David Crystal, one of the world's authorities on language, bri...
This was Question 15 in paper 1: ‘Which of the sentences below uses commas correctly?’ Tick one. We’ll, need a board, counters, and a pair of dice. We’ll need a board, counters and a pair, of dice. We’ll need a board, counters, and, a pair of dice. We’ll need a board, counters and a pair of dice....