AsurveyofthequirksandquandariesoftheEnglishlanguage,focusingonourstrangeandwonderfulgrammarWhydowesay“Iamreadingacatalog“insteadof“Ireadacatalog“?Whydowesay“do“atall?Isthewaywespeakareflectionofourculturalvalues?Delvingintotheseprovocativetopicsandmore,OurMagnificentBastardLanguagedistillshundredsofyearsoffascinatingloreintoonelivelyhistory.Coveringsuchturningpointsasthelittle-knownCelticandWelshinfluencesonEnglish,theimpactoftheVikingraidsandtheNormanConquest,andtheGermanicinvasionsthatstarteditallduringthefifthcenturyad,JohnMcWhorternarratesthiscolorfulevolutionwithvigor.DrawingonrevolutionarygeneticandlinguisticresearchaswellasacacheofremarkabletriviaabouttheoriginsofEnglishwordsandsyntaxpatterns,OurMagnificentBastardTongueultimatelydemonstratesthearbitrary,maddeningnatureofEnglish--anditsironicsimplicityduetoitsroleasastreamlinedlinguafrancaduringtheearlyformationofBritain.Thisisthebookthatlanguageaficionadosworldwidehavebeenwaitingfor(andno,it’snotasintoendasentencewithapreposition).
