A Date with Language

by David Crystal

A collection of 366 facts about language to enliven each day of the year.
 
In this ingenious and diverse collection of 366 stories, events, and facts about language, David Crystal presents a selection of insights from literary and linguistic writers, poets, and global institutions, together with the weird and wonderful creations of language enthusiasts to enliven each day of the year. This day-by-day treatment illustrates the extraordinary, the weird, and the wonderful creations of language, covering everything from holidays like “Morse Code Day” and “Talk Like William Shatner Day” to the forensic phonetics used to catch serial killers. The book covers writers from many different eras and cultures, including William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, R. K. Narayan, Wole Soyinka, and many more.
 
Some days focus on pronunciation, orthography, grammar, or vocabulary. Others focus on the way language is used in science, religion, politics, broadcasting, publishing, the arts, and the Internet. Some days acknowledge the achievements of language study, such as in language teaching, speech therapy, deaf education, and forensic science, as well as technological progress, from the humble pencil to digital software. Several days celebrate individual languages, including those spoken in small language communities.
 
A celebration of creativity and change, this book will inspire readers to make a daily date with language.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

416 pages, Hardcover

Published September 16, 2023

About the author

David Crystal works from his home in Holyhead, North Wales, as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster. Born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland in 1941, he spent his early years in Holyhead. His family moved to Liverpool in 1951, and he received his secondary schooling at St Mary's College. He read English at University College London (1959-62), specialised in English language studies, did some research there at the Survey of English Usage under Randolph Quirk (1962-3), then joined academic life as a lecturer in linguistics, first at Bangor, then at Reading. He published the first of his 100 or so books in 1964, and became known chiefly for his research work in English language studies, in such fields as intonation and stylistics, and in the application of linguistics to religious, educational and clinical contexts, notably in the development of a range of linguistic profiling techniques for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. He held a chair at the University of Reading for 10 years, and is now Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. These days he divides his time between work on language and work on internet applications.

source: http://www.davidcrystal.com/

Reviews

[Book busy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found, as someone who was reading (likely the unintended format so I am completely culpable) this book with a goal to finish it quickly as opposed to day by day as a consequence of the library lending system, that it was a bit gruelling to read the same title format for the majority of days. That being said, Crystal has a pleasing personable yet passive voice which allows the delivery of these facts to feel rather fluid and natural. As a fan of Orwell, Wilde and Baldwin in particular it made me smile to see them honoured with a place in this book. I feel like perhaps some form of illustration (given the illustrative hardback) could have elevated the repetitive reading experience but that's really the tiniest (somewhat unreasonable) gripe I have. I personally found that, coming from a recent reading of the Etymologicon, this was a pleasing expansion of linguistics but definitely better suited to the armchair linguist such as myself as even I found myself being to some extent aware of a few of the entries.

Still, as my first nonfiction read of the year, I am rather pleased as Crystal manages to reduce the potential for dry reading with his personal anecdotes and engaging and humorous extracts. A job well done, I'd say.

[Milan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As advertised. There is a certain softness to Crystal's approach to linguistics. Or maybe the Central European way is too angular, don't know, but I prefer it. The incisivenes, vivisection of a living organism, which fights back and never gives up. In Crystal's hands English is everyone's and for everyone, a docile creature up for constant cuddling. A liberal art, all right. Then even a book with such a specific target comes across as vague and uneventful. Not much is disclosed except the scope of author's excerpt database, channeled through the calendar and stitched through with linguistic affection, not so much acumen (as shown by the very last day/page where there are New Year's wishes listed in several languages, and while I appreciate that both Slovak and Czech made the grade, neither is spelled correctly).

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A year well spent, interesting facts but not life changing.