A Bawdy Language: How a Second-Rate Language Slept Its Way to the Top

by Howard Richler

Richler, who writes a language column for the Montreal Gazette , describes the English language as permeable, inherently chaotic, incredibly fertile, and absolutely faithless. He loves it. Well bred languages, he says, are unable to enjoy the same degree of riddles, anagrams, lipograms, puns, and palindromes. He runs it through its tricks. Being from Montreal, he may have more of a political or cultural message than Americans would necessarily catch. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

Reviews

[Dana Larose]

Really fun book about the history of English and in general about how languages change and develope.

[Kiof]

False advertising. It goes from the history of the language to a book of word games. And not even very good word games. Knowing more word games probably can't hurt you, though.