Friday, May 31, 2013

The Adventure of English



I am about half way through reading "The Adventure of English" by Melvyn Bragg at the moment (a fascinating biography of the English language) and just wanted to share this little passage with you because I think it is pretty perfect.

"...language is no respecter of persons in that it will find birth wherever and whenever it can. There is very often something wonderfully anonymous about the whole process: a pimp can coin a word as lasting as that of a poet, a street hawker as a statesman, a farmer as a scholar, a foul mouth as a Latinist, vulgar as refined, illiterate as schooled. Language leaps out of mouths regardless of class, sex, age, or education: it sees something that needs to be said or saved in a word and it pounces."

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4 comments:

  1. sounds like my kind of book. i'm always fascinated by language

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    1. Me too, Niken. I would really recommend this book so let me know what you think of it if you do read it! :)

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  2. Ooooooh now there's a book I'd love to read! I've just finished 2nd year English Language & Linguistics and its fascinating! xx

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    1. That does sound very interesting, Hannah. I've always been obsessed with language and have been loving this book so definitely give it a go! It's informative in a non-stuffy way :) Thanks for stopping by :)

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