The Adventure of English: The Biography of a LanguageA "New York Times" Best Seller! Here is the riveting story of the English language, from its humble beginnings as a regional dialect to its current preeminence as the one global language, spoken by more than two billion people worldwide. In this groundbreaking book, Melvyn Bragg shows how English conquered the world. It is a magnificent adventure, full of jealousy, intrigue, and waragainst a hoard of invaders, all armed with their own conquering languages, which bit by bit, the speakers of English absorbed and made their own. Along the way, its colorful story takes in a host of remarkable people, places, and events: the Norman invasion of England in 1066; the arrival of "The Canterbury Tales" and a coarse playwright named William Shakespeare, who added 2,000 words to the language; the songs of slaves; the words of Davy Crockett; and the Lewis and Clark expedition, which led to hundreds of new words as the explorers discovered unknown flora and fauna. "The Adventure of English" is an enthralling story not only of power, religion, and trade, but also of a people and how they changed the world. " |
Contents
The Common Tongue | |
2 The Great Escape | |
Conquest | |
Holding | |
The Speech of Kings | |
Chaucer | |
Gods English | |
Wild West Words | |
Sold Down the River | |
Mastering the Language | |
The Proper Way to Talk | |
Steam Streets and Slang | |
Indian Takeover | |
The West Indies | |
Advance Australia | |
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accent adventure of English African Alfred American English Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Australian battle became become began Beowulf Bible Black Death Britain British brought called Cambridge Canterbury Tales Celtic Celts Chaucer Chronicle Church Cockney common creole culture Danelaw Danes dialect Dictionary educated England English language English words example French Germanic grammar Greek Gullah Henry hundred fifty Indian invented island John Johnson King knave land Latin linguists literature lived London Lord meaning Native American nineteenth century Norman novel Old English Old Norse Oxford phrases pidgin play poem poet poetry pronunciation Sanskrit scholars Scots seems Shakespeare sixteenth century slang slaves society sound Spanish speak speakers speech spelling spoken story talk Thomas thought thousand tongue took trade translation Tyndale University Press vocabulary Waltzing Matilda wanted Welsh West William writing written wrote Wycliffe Wycliffe's