English Language History

In Don't Believe a Word trained linguist David Shariatmadari takes us on a mind-boggling journey through the science of language, urging us to abandon our dearly held beliefs in a bid to uncover the (far more interesting) truth about what we do with words. Exploding nine widely held myths about language while introducing us to some of the fundamental insights of modern linguistics, with David Shariatmadari as our energetic guide we can marvel at the beauty and quirkiness of humanity's greatest achievement.

In 1976, the Northwest Minnesota Regional History Center, a part of the Minnesota Historical Society, conducted a bi-centennial project to record the voices of first and second generation Scandinavian Immigrants in the Upper Midwest, especially in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota. The author traveled to their homes and interviewed more than a hundred immigrants or their children to gather information on the immigrant experience. Among the issues explored with these people were conditions in the home country, reasons for emigration, the route of the emigrations and the ...

This audiobook begins with an account of the birth of John and of Jesus, the last representatives of prophecy in the house of Israel. The claim that Jesus is the son of God is firmly denied, as is the assertion of the pagans of Mecca that the angels are God’s daughters. It then mentions the missions of some earlier prophets, showing that only human beings are raised to reform the world. Consisting of 93 verses, this is one of the early Meccan chapters.

Readers will discover the rich history of the written language, printing, books, the alphabet, and the library. The written word is essential to modern civilization. The invention of the printing press was a major advance in the history of language, making possible the mass production of books and dissemination of knowledge.

Ruben Soto gives us an insightful and informative history of the leading Spanish-language television network in the United States. This book will show you how Univision changed American television from an all English-format to one that includes Spanish. You will also hear how Univision convinced advertisers that Hispanics had huge purchasing power.

In the same engaging style and dry humor that makes the Podictionary podcast popular, Hodgson traces the development of our language using easily recognizable milestones such as Beowulf, William the Conqueror, Chaucer, and Shakespeare, with a minimum of dates and dry facts.

You should have experienced situations when people do not understand you when you are in a foreign country. Especially when you are ordering food, you probably want to go to the kitchen and instruct on how to cook or even cook for yourself. This happens even more when you are asking for direction. People give you a random answer and try to get over it.

With the invention of printing, reading books moved from being an act performed only by priests and aristocrats into an individual, even private activity. This change helped spark the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution - in which punctuation played a crucial role. As long as texts were read out loud by only an educated elite there was no need for punctuation to mark pauses, full stops or questions.

Civilizations all over the earth share architecture, building methods and materials, knowledge of astronomy, layout of cities, and even worship the same gods and goddesses by various names. Human civilization began as unified culture at Babel. Secular Humanism is incorrect with its belief that these people were incapable of advanced technology. Believers in ancient astronauts are closer to the truth, but the Scriptures unmask these creatures as unclean spirits or demons, not friendly, helpful visitors from other planets. Secular Humanists acknowledge the problems with the conventional ...

Struggling to communicate while travelling? Want to have a great experience while travelling to Hong Kong? Then you should listen to this audiobook.

"The Story of Peter Pan", by James M. Barrie, is one of the most famous tales about youth and dream-like adventures; this classic adaptation of Barrie's play will let you fly on the wings of your imagination. "The History of Tom Thumb" was the first fairy tale ever printed in English. "The Three Sillies" is a very old folktale, and has been handed down over the centuries for its entertainment value. "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is a classic folktale of which numerous versions are known; they all delight and educate children about the importance of boundaries and personal property. Last but not least, "Jack the Giant Killer" is a fascinating folk tale coming from the Middle Ages, set during King Arthur's reign; it shows how a young man uses clever tricks to outwit terrible giants and rid England of their terrible threats.

Would you receive a ‘char and a wad’ with a grateful smile? If asked to take a ‘dekko’, would you be offended? And if spotted reading the ‘yellow press’, would you be embarrassed?The meaning of these and many other intriguing phrases are defined, and their loss lamented, in this wonderfully nostalgic look at how language has changed over the past few decades.

The tigers of Chowghad were a man-eating Bengal tigress and her sub-adult cub, which for over a five-year period killed a reported 64 people in eastern Kumaon over an area spanning 1,500 square miles (3,900 square km). The tigress was attacking humans initially alone, but later she was assisted by her sub-adult cub. This is a story of a terrible man-eating tigress who had maximum number of preys on her name.

Along with Egypt, the cultural and geographic region known as Mesopotamia was home to some of the world’s earliest civilizations and also the first known form of writing, cuneiform. Many different ethnic groups vied for power in ancient Mesopotamia over the course of antiquity--spanning about 3,000 years--and many of them spoke different languages. Despite these differences, the people in Mesopotamia shared many cultural attributes including similar religious practices, a common art and architecture style, and a shared use of the cuneiform script.

It is night in the South Seas near Tahiti, and the ship HMS Bounty has begun the long voyage home to England. But the sailors on the ship are angry men, and they have swords and guns. They pull the captain out of bed and take him up on deck. He tries to run, but a sailor holds a knife to his neck. "Do that again, Captain Bligh, and you’re a dead man!" he says.

You wouldn’t be ‘barking mad’ if, when asked the definition of certain phrases, ‘the cat got your tongue’ and you ‘clammed up’. Let’s not ‘beat around the bush’; the English language is littered with linguistic quirks that, on closer examination, seem utterly fantastical. In Spilling the Beans on the Cat’s Pyjamas, Judy Parkinson explores the many colourful – but rather incomprehensible – phrases that enhance our language, describing their origins and defining their true meanings.

Early humans leaving messages on cave walls; three men on a raft stumbling upon a language they weren't looking for; a secret language that evolved to hide a people; the world's only undeciphered language that is 4000 years old. The stories in this book take you from the northeastern-most tip of our country to the forests in central India, from indigenous languages that are thousands of years old to those that have developed recently.

From Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Charlie Chaplin, this varied and unfailingly absorbing book is both story and history, both public memoir and personal record - and provides an essential field-guide to the vast movements of taste, intellect, politics and delusion that helped to prepare the times we live in now.

Reason has done much of the heavy lifting throughout history. In this second volume, this book presents quotations from many of history's key figures who both recognize the importance—and also the limitations—of reason.

All food has a story, reaching as far back into history as language itself. As languages followed and reflected the tides of civilizations, food language came to represent some of the highs and lows of how humans communicate: from the highbrow 'Chateauneuf du Pape: (the Pope's new castle)' to the 'nun's farts' of Jamaica (also known as 'beignets'). Chock full of food puns, linguistic did-you-knows and delectable trivia, this is the surprising and hilarious history of food, told through the lens of the fascinating evolution of language.