Bryson offers a general review of the English language and how it has developed over the centuries. In a non-scholar way he provides the reader with an instructive introduction to its history. The varieties of English in the world, the differences between British and American English, and the various roots of English are among the main topics discussed. Loanwords and borrowed words are often presented through amusing anecdotes. This entertaining and informative book is based on extensive research and is a good overture to introduce people to a subject they might not know.
Commenter  J’apprécie         40
Je me suis surprise à trouver ce livre formidable! Un livre sur l'histoire de la langue anglaise! Facile à comprendre!
Commenter  J’apprécie         00
A mourir de rire, tout en apprenant un tas de choses !
Commenter  J’apprécie         00
People don't talk like this, theytalklikethis. Syllables, words, sentences run together like a watercolor left in the rain. To understand what anyone is saying to us we must separate these noises into words and the words into sentences so that we might in our turn issue a stream of mixed sounds in response. If what we say is suitably apt and amusing, the listener will show his delight by emitting a series of uncontrolled high-pitched noises, accompanied by sharp intakes of breath of the sort normally associated with a seizure or heart failure. And by these means we converse. Talking, when you think about it, is a very strange business indeed.
More than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest, it sometimes seems, try to. It would be charitable to say that the results are sometimes mixed.
Bande annonce du film RANDONNEURS AMATEURS (A Walk in the Woods), adaptation du livre de Bill Bryson.