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$5.49
The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between British & American English
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Paperback $5.49List price: $12.99 List Price This is the manufacturer's recommended retail price. Please note older versions of books may not reflect the most current list price due to price adjustments made on newer printings. We strive to keep the website's list price updated to match the current MSRP, based on information from publishers.
About
‘The first and perhaps only book on the relative merits of American and British English that is dominated by facts and analysis rather than nationalistic prejudice. For all its scholarship, this is also a funny and rollicking read.’
The Economist, Books of the Year
Only an American would call autumn fall or refer to a perfectly good pavement as a sidewalk… Not so, says Lynne Murphy. The English invented sidewalk in the seventeenth century and in 1693 John Dryden wrote the line, ‘Or how last fall he raised the weekly bills.’
Perhaps we don’t know our own language quite as well as we thought.
Murphy, an American linguist in Britain, dissects the myths surrounding British and American English in a laugh-out-loud exploration of how language works and where it's going.
The Economist, Books of the Year
Only an American would call autumn fall or refer to a perfectly good pavement as a sidewalk… Not so, says Lynne Murphy. The English invented sidewalk in the seventeenth century and in 1693 John Dryden wrote the line, ‘Or how last fall he raised the weekly bills.’
Perhaps we don’t know our own language quite as well as we thought.
Murphy, an American linguist in Britain, dissects the myths surrounding British and American English in a laugh-out-loud exploration of how language works and where it's going.
- ISBN:
- 9781786074973
- Publication Date:
- 2019-01-01
- Publisher:
- Oneworld Publications
- Language:
- English
- Page Count:
- 360
- Size:
- 7.75" l x 5.0" w x 1.25" h
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- Writing Skills
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