Random House New Releases - Language Arts - Linguistics

Second Mencken Chrestomathy by H.L. Mencken

2013-03-20T00:30:00-05:00

Second Mencken Chrestomathy
Written by H.L. Mencken

eBook, 656 pages | Vintage | Literary Criticism & Collections - Essays; Language Arts - Linguistics | $11.99 | 978-0-307-83111-8 (0-307-83111-6)

Before there was any such thing as political correctness, H. L. Mencken was flouting it. He was also cheerfully deriding the precursors of family values and lambasting the guardians of public virtue. This historic new collection is further evidence that Mencken was our most astute, stylish, and biliously funny commentator on the eternal American quackeries.

A Second Mencken Chrestomathy (a word meaning “a collection of choice passages from an author or authors”) was compiled by the sage of Baltimore before he suffered the stroke that ended his career and has only now been retrieved from his private papers by the columnist and Mencken biographer Terry Teachout. Its 238 selections—many of which have never before been published in book form—encompass subjects from Americana (“The Commonwealth of Morons”) to men and women (“Sex on the Stage”) and from criminology (“More and Better Psychopaths”) to the pursuit of happiness (“Alcohol”). The result is Mencken at his most engaging, maddening, heretical, and hilarious.

On an Irish Island by Robert Kanigel

2013-02-26T00:30:00-05:00

On an Irish Island The Lost World of the Great Blasket
Written by Robert Kanigel

Trade Paperback, 336 pages | Vintage | History - Ireland; History - Social History; Language Arts - Linguistics | $16.00 | 978-0-307-38987-9 (0-307-38987-1)

On an Irish Island tells the remarkable story of a remote outpost nearly untouched by time in the first half of the twentieth century, and of the adventurous men and women who visited and were inspired by it.

In a love letter to a vanished way of life, Robert Kanigel brings to life this wildly beautiful island, notable for the vivid communal life of its residents and the unadulterated Irish they spoke well into the twentieth century. With the Irish language rapidly disappearing, Great Blasket became a magnet for scholars, linguists, and writers during the Gaelic renaissance. As we follow these visitors—among them John Millington Synge, author of The Playboy of the Western World—we are captivated both by the tiny group of islanders who kept an entire country’s past alive and by their complex relationships with those who brought the island’s story to the larger world.

The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram

2012-10-17T00:30:00-05:00

The Spell of the Sensuous Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World
Written by David Abram

eBook, 352 pages | Vintage | Nature - Ecology; Philosophy; Language Arts - Linguistics | $11.99 | 978-0-307-83055-5 (0-307-83055-1)

Animal tracks, word magic, the speech of stones, the power of letters, and the taste of the wind all figure prominently in this intellectual tour de force that returns us to our senses and to the sensuous terrain that sustains us. This is a major work of ecological philosophy that startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception.

On an Irish Island by Robert Kanigel

2012-02-07T00:30:00-05:00

On an Irish Island
Written by Robert Kanigel

Hardcover, 336 pages | Knopf | History - Ireland; History - Social History; Language Arts - Linguistics | $26.95 | 978-0-307-26959-1 (0-307-26959-0)

On an Irish Island is a love letter to a vanished way of life, in which Robert Kanigel, the highly praised author of The Man Who Knew Infinity and The One Best Way, tells the story of the Great Blasket, a wildly beautiful island off the west coast of Ireland, renowned during the early twentieth century for the rich communal life of its residents and the unadulterated Irish they spoke. With the Irish language vanishing all through the rest of Ireland, the Great Blasket became a magnet for scholars and writers drawn there during the Gaelic renaissance—and the scene for a memorable clash of cultures between modern life and an older, sometimes sweeter world slipping away.

Kanigel introduces us to the playwright John Millington Synge, some of whose characters in The Playboy of the Western World, were inspired by his time on the island; Carl Marstrander, a Norwegian linguist who gave his place on Norway’s Olympic team for a summer on the Blasket; Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, a Celtic studies scholar fresh from the Sorbonne; and central to the story, George Thomson, a British classicist whose involvement with the island and its people we follow from his first visit as a twenty-year-old to the end of his life.

On the island, they met a colorful coterie of men and women with whom they formed lifelong and life-changing friendships. There’s Tomás O’Crohan, a stoic fisherman, one of the few islanders who could read and write Irish, who tutored many of the incomers in the language’s formidable intricacies and became the Blasket’s first published writer; Maurice O’Sullivan, a good-natured prankster and teller of stories, whose memoir, Twenty Years A-Growing, became an Irish classic; and Peig Sayers, whose endless repertoire of earthy tales left listeners spellbound.

As we get to know these men and women, we become immersed in the vivid culture of the islanders, their hard lives of fishing and farming matched by their love of singing, dancing, and talk. Yet, sadly, we watch them leave the island, the village becoming uninhabited by 1953. The story of the Great Blasket is one of struggle—between the call of modernity and the tug of Ireland’s ancient ways, between the promise of emigration and the peculiar warmth of island life amid its physical isolation. But ultimately it is a tribute to the strength and beauty of a people who, tucked away from the rest of civilization, kept alive a nation’s past, and to the newcomers and islanders alike who brought the island’s remarkable story to the larger world.

On an Irish Island by Robert Kanigel

2012-02-07T00:30:00-05:00

On an Irish Island
Written by Robert Kanigel

eBook, 336 pages | Vintage | History - Ireland; History - Social History; Language Arts - Linguistics | $11.99 | 978-0-307-95748-1 (0-307-95748-9)

American Language by H.L. Mencken

2012-01-04T00:30:00-05:00

American Language
Written by H.L. Mencken

eBook, 816 pages | Knopf | Language Arts - Linguistics | $39.99 | 978-0-307-80879-0 (0-307-80879-3)

The American Language, first published in 1919, is H. L. Mencken's book about the English language as spoken in the United States.

Mencken was inspired by "the argot of the colored waiters" in Washington, as well as one of his favorite authors, Mark Twain, and his experiences on the streets of Baltimore. In 1902, Mencken remarked on the "queer words which go into the making of 'United States.'" The book was preceded by several columns in The Evening Sun. Mencken eventually asked "Why doesn't some painstaking pundit attempt a grammar of the American language... English, that is, as spoken by the great masses of the plain people of this fair land?" It would appear that he answered his own question.

In the tradition of Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary, Mencken wanted to defend "Americanisms" against a steady stream of English critics, who usually isolated Americanisms as borderline barbarous perversions of the mother tongue. Mencken assaulted the prescriptive grammar of these critics and American "schoolmarms", arguing, like Samuel Johnson in the preface to his dictionary, that language evolves independently of textbooks.

The book discusses the beginnings of "American" variations from "English", the spread of these variations, American names and slang over the course of its 374 pages. According to Mencken, American English was more colorful, vivid, and creative than its British counterpart.

You Are What You Speak by Robert Lane Greene

2011-03-08T00:30:00-05:00

You Are What You Speak Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity
Written by Robert Lane Greene

Hardcover, 336 pages | Delacorte Press | Language Arts; Language Arts - Linguistics; Social Science | $25.00 | 978-0-553-80787-5 (0-553-80787-0)

"An insightful, accessible examination of the way in which day-to-day speech is tangled in a complicated web of history, politics, race, economics and power." - Kirkus

What is it about other people’s language that moves some of us to anxiety or even rage? For centuries, sticklers the world over have donned the cloak of authority to control the way people use words. Now this sensational new book strikes back to defend the fascinating, real-life diversity of this most basic human faculty.

With the erudite yet accessible style that marks his work as a journalist, Robert Lane Greene takes readers on a rollicking tour around the world, illustrating with vivid anecdotes the role language beliefs play in shaping our identities, for good and ill. Beginning with literal myths, from the Tower of Babel to the bloody origins of the word “shibboleth,” Greene shows how language “experts” went from myth-making to rule-making and from building cohesive communities to building modern nations. From the notion of one language’s superiority to the common perception that phrases like “It’s me” are “bad English,” linguistic beliefs too often define “us” and distance “them,” supporting class, ethnic, or national prejudices. In short: What we hear about language is often really about the politics of identity.

Governments foolishly try to police language development (the French Academy), nationalism leads to the violent suppression of minority languages (Kurdish and Basque), and even Americans fear that the most successful language in world history (English) may be threatened by increased immigration. These false language beliefs are often tied to harmful political ends and can lead to the violation of basic human rights. Conversely, political involvement in language can sometimes prove beneficial, as with the Zionist revival of Hebrew or our present-day efforts to provide education in foreign languages essential to business, diplomacy, and intelligence. And yes, standardized languages play a crucial role in uniting modern societies.

As this fascinating book shows, everything we’ve been taught to think about language may not be wrong—but it is often about something more than language alone. You Are What You Speak will certainly get people talking.

You Are What You Speak by Robert Lane Greene

2011-03-08T00:30:00-05:00

You Are What You Speak Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity
Written by Robert Lane Greene

eBook, 320 pages | Delacorte Press | Language Arts; Language Arts - Linguistics; Social Science | $12.99 | 978-0-440-33976-2 (0-440-33976-6)

News Is a Verb by Pete Hamill

2011-01-05T00:30:00-05:00

News Is a Verb
Written by Pete Hamill

eBook, 112 pages | Ballantine Books | Language Arts - Linguistics | $9.99 | 978-0-307-76676-2 (0-307-76676-4)

LIBRARY OF CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT
"When screaming headlines turn out to be based on stories that don't support them, the tale of the boy who cried wolf gets new life. When the newspaper is filled with stupid features about celebrities at the expense of hard news, the reader feels patronized. In the process, the critical relationship of reader to newspaper is slowly undermined."
--from NEWS IS A VERB

NEWS IS A VERB
Journalism at the End of the Twentieth Century

"With the usual honorable exceptions, newspapers are getting dumber. They are increasingly filled with sensation, rumor, press-agent flackery, and bloated trivialities at the expense of significant facts. The Lewinsky affair was just a magnified version of what has been going on for some time. Newspapers emphasize drama and conflict at the expense of analysis. They cover celebrities as if reporters were a bunch of waifs with their noses pressed enviously to the windows of the rich and famous. They are parochial, square, enslaved to the conventional pieties. The worst are becoming brainless printed junk food. All across the country, in large cities and small, even the better newspapers are predictable and boring. I once heard a movie director say of a certain screenwriter: 'He aspired to mediocrity, and he succeeded.' Many newspapers are succeeding in the same way."

From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Last Speakers by K. David Harrison

2010-09-21T00:30:00-05:00

The Last Speakers The Quest to Save the World's Most Endangered Languages
Written by K. David Harrison

Hardcover, 304 pages | National Geographic | Social Science - Anthropology; Social Science - Anth/Cultural; Language Arts - Linguistics | $27.00 | 978-1-4262-0461-6 (1-4262-0461-2)

Part travelogue and part scientist's notebook, The Last Speakers is the poignant chronicle of author K. David Harrison's expeditions around the world to meet with last speakers of vanishing languages. The speakers' eloquent reflections and candid photographs reveal little-known lifeways as well as revitalization efforts to teach disappearing languages to younger generations. Thought-provoking and engaging, this unique book illuminates the global language-extinction crisis through photos, graphics, interviews, traditional wisdom never before translated into English, and first-person essays that thrillingly convey the adventure of science and exploration.

In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent

2010-05-11T00:30:00-05:00

In the Land of Invented Languages Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius
Written by Arika Okrent

Trade Paperback, 352 pages | Spiegel & Grau | Language Arts - Linguistics | $16.00 | 978-0-8129-8089-9 (0-8129-8089-1)

Here is the captivating story of humankind’s enduring quest to build a better language—and overcome the curse of Babel. Just about everyone has heard of Esperanto, which was nothing less than one man’s attempt to bring about world peace by means of linguistic solidarity. And every Star Trek fan knows about Klingon. But few people have heard of Babm, Blissymbolics, Loglan (not to be confused with Lojban), and the nearly nine hundred other invented languages that represent the hard work, high hopes, and full-blown delusions of so many misguided souls over the centuries. With intelligence and humor, Arika Okrent has written a truly original and enlightening book for all word freaks, grammar geeks, and plain old language lovers.

La Bella Lingua by Dianne Hales

2010-04-20T00:30:00-05:00

La Bella Lingua My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language
Written by Dianne Hales

Trade Paperback, 336 pages | Broadway | Travel - Europe - Italy; Travel - Essays & Travelogues; Language Arts - Linguistics | $15.00 | 978-0-7679-2770-3 (0-7679-2770-2)

“Italians say that someone who acquires a new language ‘possesses’ it. In my case, Italian possesses me. With Italian racing like blood through my veins, I do indeed see with different eyes, hear with different ears, and drink in the world with all my senses…”

A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one woman’s personal quest to speak fluent Italian.

For anyone who has been to Italy, the fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one must learn the language. This is how Dianne Hales began her journey. In La Bella Lingua, she brings the story of her decades-long experience with the “the world’s most loved and lovable language” together with explorations of Italy’s history, literature, art, music, movies, lifestyle, and food in a true opera amorosa—a labor of her love of Italy.

Throughout her first excursion in Italy—with “non parlo Italiano” as her only Italian phrase—Dianne delighted in the beauty of what she saw but craved comprehension of what she heard. And so she chose to inhabit the language. Over more than twenty-five years she has studied Italian in every way possible: through Berlitz, books, CDs, podcasts, private tutorials and conversation groups, and, most importantly, large blocks of time in Italy. In the process she found that Italian became not just a passion and a pleasure, but a passport into Italy’s storia and its very soul. She offers charming insights into what makes Italian the most emotionally expressive of languages, from how the “pronto” (“Ready!”) Italians say when they answer the telephone conveys a sense of something coming alive, to how even ordinary things such as a towel (asciugamano) or handkerchief (fazzoletto) sound better in Italian.

She invites readers to join her as she traces the evolution of Italian in the zesty graffiti on the walls of Pompeii, in Dante’s incandescent cantos, and in Boccaccio’s bawdy Decameron. She portrays how social graces remain woven into the fabric of Italian: even the chipper “ciao,” which does double duty as “hi” and “bye,” reflects centuries of bella figura. And she exalts the glories of Italy’s food and its rich and often uproarious gastronomic language: Italians deftly describe someone uptight as a baccala (dried cod), a busybody who noses into everything as a prezzemolo (parsley), a worthless or banal movie as a polpettone (large meatball).

Like Dianne, readers of La Bella Lingua will find themselves innamorata, enchanted, by Italian, fascinated by its saga, tantalized by its adventures, addicted to its sound, and ever eager to spend more time in its company.

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes by Daniel L. Everett

2009-11-03T00:30:00-05:00

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle
Written by Daniel L. Everett

Trade Paperback, 320 pages | Vintage | Social Science - Anth/Cultural; Language Arts - Linguistics; Philosophy | $16.00 | 978-0-307-38612-0 (0-307-38612-0)

A riveting account of the astonishing experiences and discoveries made by linguist Daniel Everett while he lived with the Pirahã, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in central Brazil. Daniel Everett arrived among the Pirahã with his wife and three young children hoping to convert the tribe to Christianity. Everett quickly became obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications. The Pirahã have no counting system, no fixed terms for color, no concept of war, and no personal property. Everett was so impressed with their peaceful way of life that he eventually lost faith in the God he'd hoped to introduce to them, and instead devoted his life to the science of linguistics. Part passionate memoir, part scientific exploration, Everett's life-changing tale is riveting look into the nature of language, thought, and life itself.

In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent

2009-05-19T00:30:00-05:00

In the Land of Invented Languages Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language
Written by Arika Okrent

Hardcover, 352 pages | Spiegel & Grau | Language Arts - Linguistics | $26.00 | 978-0-385-52788-0 (0-385-52788-8)

Just about everyone has heard of Esperanto, which was nothing less than one man’s attempt to bring about world peace by means of linguistic solidarity. And every Star Trek fan knows about Klingon, which was nothing more than a television show’s attempt to create a tough-sounding language befitting a warrior race with ridged foreheads. But few people have heard of Babm, Blissymbolics, and the nearly nine hundred other invented languages that represent the hard work, high hopes, and full-blown delusions of so many misguided souls over the centuries.

In In The Land of Invented Languages, author Arika Okrent tells the fascinating and highly entertaining history of man’s enduring quest to build a better language. Peopled with charming eccentrics and exasperating megalomaniacs, the land of invented languages is a place where you can recite the Lord’s Prayer in John Wilkins’s Philosophical Language, say your wedding vows in Loglan, and read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in Lojban.

A truly original new addition to the booming category of language books, In The Land of Invented Languages will be a must-have on the shelves of all word freaks, grammar geeks, and plain old language lovers.

In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent

2009-05-19T00:30:00-05:00

In the Land of Invented Languages Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language
Written by Arika Okrent

eBook | Spiegel & Grau | Language Arts - Linguistics | $13.99 | 978-0-385-52971-6 (0-385-52971-6)

Language Visible by David Sacks

2008-12-18T00:30:00-05:00

Language Visible Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z
Written by David Sacks

eBook, 416 pages | Broadway | Language Arts - Linguistics | $14.99 | 978-0-307-48693-6 (0-307-48693-1)

Letters are tangible language. Joining together in endless combinations to actually show speech, letters convey our messages and tell our stories. While we encounter these tiny shapes hundreds of times a day, we take for granted the long, fascinating history behind one of the most fundamental of human inventions--the alphabet.

The heart of the book is the 26 fact-filled “biographies” of letters A through Z, each one identifying the letter’s particular significance for modern readers, tracing its development from ancient forms, and discussing its noteworthy role in literature and other media. We learn, for example, why the letter X has a sinister and sexual aura, how B came to signify second best, why the word “mother” in many languages starts with M, and what is the story of O.

Packed with information and lavishly illustrated, Language Visible is not only accessible and entertaining, but essential to the appreciation of our own language.

Biting the Wax Tadpole by Elizabeth Little

2008-11-11T00:30:00-05:00

Biting the Wax Tadpole Confessions of a Language Fanatic
Written by Elizabeth Little

Trade Paperback, 192 pages | Spiegel & Grau | Language Arts - Linguistics | $14.95 | 978-0-385-52774-3 (0-385-52774-8)

When Chinese shopkeepers tried to find a written equivalent of Coca-Cola, one set of characters they chose was pronounced “ke-kou ke-la.” It sounded right, but it literally translated as “bite the wax tadpole.”

Language, like travel, is always stranger than we expect and often more beautiful than we imagine. In Biting the Wax Tadpole Elizabeth Little takes a decidedly unstuffy and accessible tour of grammar via the languages of the world—from Lithuanian noun declensions and imperfective Russian verbs to Ancient Greek and Navajo. And in one of the most courageous acts in the history of popular grammar books, she attempts to provide an explanation of verbal aspect that people might actually understand. Other difficult and pressing questions addressed in Biting the Wax Tadpole include:

*Just what, exactly, the Swedish names of IKEA products mean

*Why Icelandic speakers must decide if the numbers 1-4 are plural

*How Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) was able to take an otherwise unexceptional pair of breakfast foods and turn them into literary fodder for generations

*Why Joanie Loves Chachi was Korea’s highest rated television show ever

*Why Basque grammar seems downright kooky to just about anyone who isn’t a native speaker

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes by Daniel L. Everett

2008-11-11T00:30:00-05:00

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle
Written by Daniel L. Everett

eBook | Vintage | Language Arts - Linguistics; Social Science - Anthropology; Philosophy | $13.99 | 978-0-307-37779-1 (0-307-37779-2)

Resurrecting Hebrew by Ilan Stavans

2008-09-16T00:30:00-05:00

Resurrecting Hebrew
Written by Ilan Stavans

Hardcover, 240 pages | Schocken | Language Arts - Linguistics | $21.00 | 978-0-8052-4231-7 (0-8052-4231-7)

Part of the Jewish Encounter series

Here is the stirring story of how Hebrew was rescued from the fate of a dead language to become the living tongue of a modern nation. Ilan Stavans’s quest begins with a dream featuring a beautiful woman speaking an unknown language. When the language turns out to be Hebrew, a friend diagnoses “language withdrawal,” and Stavans sets out in search of his own forgotten Hebrew as well as the man who helped revive the language at the end of the nineteenth century, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda.

The search for Ben-Yehuda, who raised his eldest son in linguistic isolation–not even allowing him to hear the songs of birds–so that he would be “the first Hebrew-speaking child,” becomes a journey full of paradox. It was Orthodox anti-Zionists who had Ben-Yehuda arrested for sedition, and, although Ben-Yehuda was devoted to Jewish life in Palestine, it was in Manhattan that he worked on his great dictionary of the Hebrew language.

The resurrection of Hebrew raises urgent questions about the role language plays in Jewish survival, questions that lead Stavans not merely into the roots of modern Hebrew but into the origins of Israel itself. All the tensions between the Diaspora and the idea of a promised land pulse beneath the surface of Stavans’s story, which is a fascinating biography as well as a moving personal journey.

Resurrecting Hebrew by Ilan Stavans

2008-09-16T00:30:00-05:00

Resurrecting Hebrew
Written by Ilan Stavans

eBook | Schocken | Language Arts - Linguistics | $14.99 | 978-0-8052-4262-1 (0-8052-4262-7)

From the Hardcover edition.

Random House New Releases - Language Arts - Linguistics

Second Mencken Chrestomathy by H.L. Mencken

Second Mencken Chrestomathy Written by H.L. Mencken

On an Irish Island by Robert Kanigel

On an Irish Island The Lost World of the Great BlasketWritten by Robert Kanigel

The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram

The Spell of the Sensuous Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human WorldWritten by David Abram

On an Irish Island by Robert Kanigel

On an Irish Island Written by Robert Kanigel

On an Irish Island by Robert Kanigel

On an Irish Island Written by Robert Kanigel

American Language by H.L. Mencken

American Language Written by H.L. Mencken

You Are What You Speak by Robert Lane Greene

You Are What You Speak Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of IdentityWritten by Robert Lane Greene

You Are What You Speak by Robert Lane Greene

You Are What You Speak Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of IdentityWritten by Robert Lane Greene

News Is a Verb by Pete Hamill

News Is a Verb Written by Pete Hamill

The Last Speakers by K. David Harrison

The Last Speakers The Quest to Save the World's Most Endangered LanguagesWritten by K. David Harrison

In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent

In the Land of Invented Languages Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and GeniusWritten by Arika Okrent

La Bella Lingua by Dianne Hales

La Bella Lingua My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting LanguageWritten by Dianne Hales

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes by Daniel L. Everett

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes Life and Language in the Amazonian JungleWritten by Daniel L. Everett

In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent

In the Land of Invented Languages Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect LanguageWritten by Arika Okrent

In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent

In the Land of Invented Languages Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect LanguageWritten by Arika Okrent

Language Visible by David Sacks

Language Visible Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to ZWritten by David Sacks

Biting the Wax Tadpole by Elizabeth Little

Biting the Wax Tadpole Confessions of a Language FanaticWritten by Elizabeth Little

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes by Daniel L. Everett

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes Life and Language in the Amazonian JungleWritten by Daniel L. Everett

Resurrecting Hebrew by Ilan Stavans

Resurrecting Hebrew Written by Ilan Stavans

Resurrecting Hebrew by Ilan Stavans

Resurrecting Hebrew Written by Ilan Stavans

Second Mencken Chrestomathy
Written by H.L. Mencken

On an Irish Island The Lost World of the Great Blasket
Written by Robert Kanigel

The Spell of the Sensuous Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World
Written by David Abram

On an Irish Island
Written by Robert Kanigel

On an Irish Island
Written by Robert Kanigel

American Language
Written by H.L. Mencken

You Are What You Speak Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity
Written by Robert Lane Greene

You Are What You Speak Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity
Written by Robert Lane Greene

News Is a Verb
Written by Pete Hamill

The Last Speakers The Quest to Save the World's Most Endangered Languages
Written by K. David Harrison

In the Land of Invented Languages Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius
Written by Arika Okrent

La Bella Lingua My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language
Written by Dianne Hales

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle
Written by Daniel L. Everett

In the Land of Invented Languages Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language
Written by Arika Okrent

In the Land of Invented Languages Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language
Written by Arika Okrent

Language Visible Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z
Written by David Sacks

Biting the Wax Tadpole Confessions of a Language Fanatic
Written by Elizabeth Little

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle
Written by Daniel L. Everett

Resurrecting Hebrew
Written by Ilan Stavans

Resurrecting Hebrew
Written by Ilan Stavans