Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where It's Heading

by Naomi S. Baron

In Alphabet to Email Naomi Baron takes us on a fascinating and often entertaining journey through the history of the English language, showing how technology - especially email - is gradually stripping language of its formality.
Drawing together strands of thinking about writing, speech, pedagogy, technology, and globalization, Naomi Baron explores the ever-changing relationship between speech and writing and considers the implications of current language trends on the future of written English.
Alphabet to Email will appeal to anyone who is curious about how the English language has changed over the centuries and where it might be going.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction

330 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

Professor Baron is interested in electronically-mediated communication, writing and technology, the history of English, and higher education. A former Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Fellow, she has published seven books. Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World won the English-Speaking Union’s Duke of Edinburgh English Language Book Award for 2008. Her new book, Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World, will be out in early 2015.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was as lucid and interesting a history of the evolution of spoken and written English as I've ever encountered. I particularly enjoyed learning more about the history of relatively recent developments (e.g., the typewriter). Regardless of her subject though, Baron does an incredible job of making her synthesis accessible and forward thinking. I'd recommend this to anyone who found the topic interesting and will certainly use chapters of the book to teach.

[Bird Ville]

Ik registreerde een boek op BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12941337