(Paperback)

Following his bestselling Lost for Words, the ever-popular John Humphrys takes a provocative look at the hidden attitudes that lie behind so many of our current phrases and expressions.

(Hardback, 3rd edition)

Introduces students to Chaucer's language and the importance of reading Chaucer in the original, rather than in a modern translation.

(Paperback)

This helpful how-to guide teaches kids what a question is, when to ask one, and how to form one. Friendly tips and pointers ("Keep it short!" "Show interest!") help kids keep their questions appropriate and on point. Above all, the book encourages readers to keep on asking questions--the beginning of learning about the world.

(Hardback)

This helpful how-to guide teaches kids what a question is, when to ask one, and how to form one. Friendly tips and pointers ("Keep it short!" "Show interest!") help kids keep their questions appropriate and on point. Above all, the book encourages readers to keep on asking questions--the beginning of learning about the world.

(Paperback)

An unusual and authoritative 'natural history of languages' that narrates the ways in which one language has superseded or outlasted another at different times in history.

(Paperback)

Victor Neumann traces the transition of European history, paying particular attention to the idealistic philosophies that have influenced the intellectual landscape and political discourse of European regions today.

(Paperback)

From Today programme presenter and national treasure John Humphrys, the bestselling cry in book form for better English and an expos of the political uses and abuses of language.

(Hardback)

From the author of the BBC Radio News house style guide comes a fascinating guide to the English language.

(Hardback)

(Paperback)

Focusing on the contemporary Scottish culture, this book is a useful reading for those who care about their country's identity in the twenty-first century. It is a history of how the Scots have come to speak the way they do and it acted as a catalyst for radical changes in attitude towards the language.

(Paperback)

Women as slang creators and users is perhaps the last, and very important, piece of the slang jigsaw. Women in slang is a pretty sorry story, but women and slang is an undiscovered territory, which this book explores, from fishwives and flappers to Mumsnet.

(Paperback)

(Paperback)

This superbly well-informed - and also wonderfully entertaining - history of the English language answers all these questions, showing how the many strands of English (Standard English, dialect and slang among them) developed to create the richly-varied language of today.

(Paperback)

Neither a straightforward dictionary of etymology nor a linear history of language, Word Routes is an entertaining alphabetical guide to the stories behind many everyday words.

A comprehensive survey of English as it is spoken throughout the world.

(Hardback)

(Paperback)

The Arabic alphabet has a fascinating history, one that is entwined with the development of culture and society in the Middle East. This book traces the origins of the Arabic alphabet back to Aramaic, a descendant of Phoenecian, which itself gave rise to the Hebrew and Greek alphabets.

(Hardback)

This volume presents the work of leading specialists on the particular variety of French found in medieval Britain (Anglo-Norman), and also French in France itself. Other essays deal with the vernacular language of southern France, Occitan.

(Hardback)

These essays offer critiques of orthodox views on dialect and dialectology, and as such are designed both to complement standard introductory volumes on dialectology and to refine understanding of the term dialect.

(Hardback)

(Paperback)

(Paperback)

(Paperback)

(Paperback)

Written so that the ordinary writer and speaker of English can readily see the manipulations of language, this reference points out the alarmingly verbal atrocities used today. It is arranged alphabetically, like a dictionary, providing a compendium of frequently abused words and suggested alternates.