by James Essinger
Grade: To Own
I think I just might want to own this one. It is absolutely fascinating, and an excellent resource. Here are just a couple of the points I found interesting:
--"fish" can be spelled "ghoti", says Shaw, according to the sounds those letters use in other words
--"pork" vs. "pig": the difference came with the rich Normans, never seeing the animal, calling it "pork", and the poor Saxons, never seeing the meat, calling it "pig"
--I love Norman names. Draco Malfoy is one (versus Harry Potter), and Caledon Hockley (versus Jack Dawson)
--"[T]he ruder the word is, the more Anglo-Saxon is sounds"
--I wanna go to the British Library--it sounds beautiful and wonderful and lovely
--There's a particular episode of Blackadder that I ought to watch, starring Dr. Johnson
--He didn't mention Shakespeare adding words, which I've heard to be the case. I think I might email him about it and ask him
--On page 268-9, there is a plethora of beautiful British spellings, some of which I want to adopt.
And those are but a few! Really cool book.
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