Bibliofreakblog

The Stories of English by David Crystal

I am not afraid to admit to my nerdom.  I fully embrace it, in fact.  Dorkiness is another thing, which I usually try to hide.  But nerdom is a key to my very being.  And possibly no other sphere of my life exemplifies my nerdiness more than my love of etymology.  

Oh, if I were rich!  I could afford the ridiculous $300/year subscription to OED.com, but as it is, I must go to the Seattle Public Library and use their subscription any time I have a question about word origins.  That’s O.K., because I tend to be at the library a lot (you can usually find me on the third or fifth floor of the downtown branch).

Until the time that I can afford my own subscription, I gobble up books about linguistics.  No, that’s a lie.  It always takes me a long time to read nonfiction, no matter how patient the author nor how much interest I have in the subject.

I have read a lot of them though.  That’s also a lie.  For being 26 years old and only holding a B.A., with a wide interest in things, I have read probably more than most people in my demographic.  In that context, I have read a lot about linguistics.

And this, friends, is a fabulous read.

Each chapter has a deceptively boring title (to people who are not me), such as “Early Lexical Diversity”, “Stylistic Variation in Old English”, and “Printing and Its Consequences”.  

But then each chapter has an interlude.  And that’s where the fun for everyone lies.  Some interlude titles:

• Well well
• Complaining about Change
• Choosing thou or you
• Delusions of Simplicity
• Dialect in Middle Earth

Anyone who has the tiniest interest about the English language, who wonders why it’s so fucked up (it’s not, but it seems that way–I hold that it is the greatest, most inclusive modern language) should read this book.  

In the end, you’ll have a much clearer picture and a better understanding of your tongue, native or otherwise.  You will (hopefully) conclude that Modern English is not static, but is and will continue to evolve.

Oh, and I’m happy to report that he uses dangling prepositions.  

If you like this book/author, you might like:

The Unfolding of Language (NF) by Guy Deutscher
The First Word (NF) by Christine Keneally
The Search for the Perfect Language (NF) by Umberto Eco
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves (NF) by Lynn Truss
Empires of the World: A Language History of the World (NF) by Nicholas Ostler
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language (NF) by John McWhorter
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English (NF) by John McWhorter
The Story of English (NF) by Robert McCrum
Do You Speak American? (NF) by Robert MacNeil
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (NF) by Simon Winchester
Consider the Lobster (CNF) by David Foster Wallace
Freakonomics (NF) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
The Canterbury Tales (EP) by Geoffrey Chaucer
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (EP) by Brian Stone (translator)
Beowulf (EP) by Seamus Heaney (translator)
The Complete Works of Shakespeare (D) by William Shakespeare

Other works by David Crystal*:

How Language Works (NF)
Just a Phrase I’m Going Through: My Life in Language (CNF)
Txtng: The GR8 DB8 (NF)
Think on My Words: Exploring Shakespeare’s Language (NF)
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (NF)
The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left (NF)
Words, Words, Words (NF)
The English Language: A Guided Tour of the Language (NF)
As They Say in Zanzibar: Proverbial Wisdom from Around the World (NF)
By Hook or by Crook (CNF)
Language Death (NF)
Language and the Internet (NF)
Rediscover Grammar (NF)
Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (NF)
Language Play (NF)
The Language Revolution (NF)
Making Sense of Grammar (NF)
The Penguin Encyclopedia (NF)
The New Penguin Factfinder (NF)
Pronouncing Shakespeare: The Globe Experiment (NF)
A Glossary of Netspeak and Textspeak (NF)
Profiling Linguistic Disability (NF)
Listen to Your Child: A Parent’s Guide to Children’s Language (NF)
English as a Global Language (NF)
The Future of Language: The Routledge David Crystal Lectures (NF)

With Ben Crystal:

Shakespeare’s Words: A Glossary and Language Companion (NF)
The Shakespeare Miscellany 

With Hilary Crystal (editors):

Words on Words: Quotations on Language and Languages (NF)

With Geoff Barton:

Discover Grammar

With H.W. Fowler:

A Dictionary of Modern Usage (NF)

*NOTE: This list is not exhaustive.  For the most part in only includes works still in print, though you can still find many of his works used.  Some can also be purchased from his website www.davidcrystal.com