Our Marvelous Native Tongue: The Life and Times of the English Language

New York: Random House, Inc. - Times Books, 1987. Second Printing . Trade Paperback. Near Fine. 6" x 9. 339 Pages with Indexes for Words, Phrases and Proper Names, and Subject. Second printing of the First Paperback Editon. Covers have very minor edge wear and the front cover corners are slighltly turned up. Interior text is fautless. The English language is the most wonderful communicative instrument in the world. It owes its greatness to a uniquely rich, variegated and expressive vocabulary-some 500,000 words, more than three times as many as its nearest competitor. The story of where all these words came from is as remarkable as the vocabulary itself. The pae jamahs we sleep in came from Persia via India, the chocolatl we eat from Mexico via Spain, and the chitmunk and squnk from the Native Americans. The sources of the words reveal the lives of the people who made English what it is. The words can tell us how our distant linguistic kin lived, where they traveled and whom they met along the way. This absorbing, panoramic history portrays the centuries-long, ever- changing pageant of English and the millions around the world who have spoken and written it and contributed to its evolution. Our Marvelous Native Tongue examines and expresses the adventures and discoveries behind, and the irrepressible inventiveness of, the living language we use today. Contents in 12 Chapters: The Imporitance of Speaking English, The Common Source, The First Conquest, The Second Conquest, The Third Conquest, The First Flowering, The Verie Height, A Search for Order, Only in America, Our Infinite Variety, Not Everybody's English, and From Here On In. Plus Notes on Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading.