Spell It Out

Resumen del libro

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 per cent of English spelling is regular but twenty-five per cent 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 the history and the principles, Crystal shows how the spellings that break all the rules become easier to get right.

Biografía del autor

Es uno de los mejores especialistas en lenguaje del mundo. Profesor honorario en la Universidad de Wales, Bangor, ha publicado muchos libros sobre la Lengua Inglesa y la Lingüística, ha editado numerosas enciclopedias generalistas y ha escrito libros de texto para la escuela. Por otra parte, participa con regularidad en programas de radio y televisión. Entre sus libros están The Stories of English (2004), Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 (2008) y Just a Phrase I'm Going Through (2009).