(no subject)

[momsalive1]

Quote from a review of "The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot and Left" by David Crystal in this week's The New York Times book review. The reviewer is commenting on how messy English got in the Middle Ages: "Latin scholars, meanwhile, tried to help by adding silent letters to show where words came from. Thus "debt" acquired its "b" (from the Latin debitum), "island" its "s" (from insula) and "people" its "o" (from populous). Thanks, fellas."

This explains a lot. If these "scholars" were alive today, someone would sue them for mental anguish on behalf of English spellers.


Also, will we ever go back to having book titles that don't include ":"?

Comments

[lapenn.livejournal.com]

If you're interested in language, I highly suggest taking a look at The Mother tongue by Bill Bryson. Funny (like all his books) and quite informative. I like to dabble in other subjects, and this was a fun look into linguistics.

[lanyn.livejournal.com]

That's quite interesting! And yes, colons seem to be popping up in every non-fiction title I browse. Grrrr.

[ffiondove.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I love the English language, when it's used properly.