Spell it out

the singular story of English spelling

328 pages

English language

Published Dec. 21, 2012 by Profile Books.

ISBN:
9781846685675
OCLC Number:
794816511

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (1 review)

This is an enlightening tour of English spelling that untangles 'stationery' from 'stationary' - and explains why the 'i before e except after c' rule is so misleading. Why is there an 'h' in ghost? William Caxton, inventor of the printing press and his Flemish employees are to blame: without a dictionary or style guide to hand in fifteenth century Bruges, the typesetters simply spelled it the way it sounded to the foreign ears, and it stuck. Seventy-five percent of English spelling is regular but twenty-five percent is complicated, and in "Spell It Out", our foremost linguistics expert David Crystal extends a helping hand to the confused and curious alike. He unearths the stories behind the rogue words that confound us, and explains why these peculiarities entered the mainstream, in an epic journey taking in sixth century monks, French and Latin upstarts, the Industrial Revolution and the internet. By learning …

2 editions

Subjects

  • Englisch
  • English language
  • Rechtschreibung
  • Orthography and spelling
  • History