This is my favourite book so far this year, and it's not even fiction! David Crystal writes wonderfully interesting for us non-linguists, as always. He has chosen 100 words that in one way or another say something significant about the development of the English language, from 'roe' to 'twittersphere'. I've been pestering the rest of my family (who is only moderately interested in language history) with quotes from the book. Did you know that the word lord originally comes from 'hlaf-weard' ('bread warden')? And did you know that there is a b in 'debt' because scholars in the 16th century wanted to emphasise the word's classical (Latin: debitum) origin and therefore started writing it with a b. And you learn that a wonderful word like 'fopdoodle' has more or less vanished from use.The book is perfect for small bite-size reading sessions, or you could dive into it and read it as any other book. You could pick out the most interesting words, or read it from beginning to end. As a Norwegian I'm particularly interested in discovering the many similarities between English and my own language, but I also find it fascinating that English is influenced by so many lanuages and continues to take up 'foreign words'.
I've truly enjoyed reading about these 100 words. If this had been a film, I would have been eager to watch the sequel!
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