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jp_priestley's reviews
150 reviews
The Adventure of English: 500 AD to 2000 : the Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg
4.0
[bc:The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language|1398472|The Adventure of English The Biography of a Language|Melvyn Bragg|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1183296206l/1398472._SY75_.jpg|71490]
I am always significantly impressed by anyone who rises to the challenge of exploring and writing about language: linguists, philologists, grammarians, lexicographers, logophiles, and so on. Among these are a small band of particularly adroit wordsmiths - such as Professor David Crystal and, as you will discover by reading The Adventure of English, Melvyn Bragg. And of Bragg's achievement, Professor Crystal in The Sunday Times had this to say:
I am always significantly impressed by anyone who rises to the challenge of exploring and writing about language: linguists, philologists, grammarians, lexicographers, logophiles, and so on. Among these are a small band of particularly adroit wordsmiths - such as Professor David Crystal and, as you will discover by reading The Adventure of English, Melvyn Bragg. And of Bragg's achievement, Professor Crystal in The Sunday Times had this to say:
'Intriguing ... I share Bragg's linguistic egalitarianism, his respect for dialects, his sense of the expressive richness that borrowed words bring'.Bragg's book is an insightful, thought-provoking and entertaining historical account of the birth and development of one of the most widely spoken international languages today. Covering the period 500 AD to 2000, Bragg's biography of the English language is confidently and clearly compiled - an eminently readable book of little gems that frequently left me smiling with appreciation.