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Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme—And Other Oddities of the English Language

Online ISBN:
9780197616017
Print ISBN:
9780197539408
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme—And Other Oddities of the English Language

Arika Okrent
Arika Okrent
Linguist and author of In the Land of Invented Languages
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Published online:
19 August 2021
Published in print:
1 September 2021
Online ISBN:
9780197616017
Print ISBN:
9780197539408
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book presents an illustrated history of English as told through all the things that are weird about it. Maybe you have been speaking English all your life, or maybe you learned it later on. But whether you use it just well enough to get your daily business done, or you are an expert who never omits a comma or misplaces a modifier, you must have noticed that there are some things about this language that are just weird. Why are there so many silent letters? Why do we have irregular verbs? The book answers these questions and many more. Along the way, it tells the story of the many influences—from invading French armies to stubborn Flemish printers—that made the English language the way it is today. Both an entertaining send-up of linguistic oddities and a deeply researched history of English, the book is essential reading for anyone who has paused to wonder about this marvelous mess of a language.

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