My
mother had an ear for language. I do not! However, I do love
reading about language, words and so forth.
The
title caught my eye first: Trip of the Tongue
while the subtitle of Cross-Country Travels in Search of
America's Languages convinced
me to give the book a try. Author Elizabeth Little is a linguist. In
her book, she travels across the country and back again searching for
those areas where a language is dying out (or not, in some cases).
Of particular interest to me was the chapter on Washington and some
of the Native American languages found here. Oh, and it seems that
the Twilight Saga
books and movies have been a good thing for Quileute. :-)
My
favorite book on the Canadian language, Canajun, Eh?
by Mark M. Orkin is, sadly, no longer available. Fortunately, How
to Be a Canadian, by Will
Ferguson and Ian Ferguson has a chapter dealing with how to talk like
a Canadian. This is a silly and irreverent book, but the authors
(brothers) are Canadian so felt they could get away with it. :-) I'm
probably finding this book as funny as I do because I live close to
the border, and have cousins in Canada as well as a good friend from
grad school. Anyway, it made me laugh out loud many times. Be sure
to carefully read the chapter on how the government works!
It
seems humans have been swearing for a long time. Some of it is good
(think oath of office), other swearing was meant to shock, or cause a
reaction, or ease the pain of hammering your thumb. The words have
changed, of course, as has what is considered to be 'bad' language.
Holy Sh*t: a Brief History of Swearing, by Melissa Mohr is a
journey about these words. From ancient Rome to present day (2013)
she explains the origin of swear words, when they were popular, and
why they were bad. In Victorian times the word 'leg' was considered
obscene ('limb' was used instead), and even 'trousers' was iffy (not
so much what they were, but what they covered). (Ladies, this is
where you blush). ;-)
Reading
Hermit With Dog
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