By Nathan Bierma
Special to the Tribune
December 22, 2004
Santa has lots of word lovers on his list, so he went to the nearest North Pole bookstore to round up the year's 10 best books about language. He let us have a look at what he found.
10. "Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends," by David Wilton (Oxford University Press, $21.95). Think "hot dog" was coined by a New York baseball vendor, or that a certain vulgarity originated as an acronym? Then you need to read this book, which shows that some of the best etymological stories are just tall tales. On a similar topic: American Heritage Dictionaries' "Word Histories and Mysteries" (Houghton Mifflin, $12.95).
9. "The Genius of Language: Fifteen Writers Reflect on Their Mother Tongues," edited by Wendy Lesser (Pantheon, $23). In the tradition of Joseph Conrad's 1912 autobiography "A Personal Record," the 15 authors in this collection reflect on their experiences learning English as a second language -- a struggle, as one puts it, "to be at home in a language."
8. "Doctor Dolittle's Delusion: Animals and the Uniqueness of Human Language," by Stephen R. Anderson (Yale University Press, $35). A useful introduction to the discipline of linguistics, and a timely response to the summer's news reports of a German border collie that could "understand" more than 200 words.
7. "Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish," by Dovid Katz (Basic Books, $26.95) The first definitive history of the Yiddish language and its extraordinary first millennium, from 11th Century Europe to its post-Holocaust resurgence today.
6. "The Elephants of Style: A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American English," by Bill Walsh (McGraw-Hill, $14.95). Anyone who writes a best seller about punctuation, as Lynne Truss did this year with "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," (Gotham Books, $17.50), deserves some kind of a medal. But as The New Yorker pointed out, Truss' book is too inconsistent to be taken seriously; it randomly commits such cardinal sins as omitting commas before non-restrictive clauses and putting semicolons before dependent clauses. Walsh is more reliable, more comprehensive and almost as entertaining.
5. "Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times," by Geoffrey Nunberg (PublicAffairs, $18.95). The observations of Nunberg, Stanford linguist and language commentator for National Public Radio, are wise and wry. While his previous collection, "The Way We Talk Now," dealt with the silliness of the 1990s, this book's post-9/11 commentaries show how language can be a serious matter. On a similar topic: "Your Own Words," by Barbara Wallraff (Counterpoint Press, $24.95).
4. "Kids' Slips: What Young Children's Slips of the Tongue Reveal About Language Development," by Jeri J. Jaeger (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, $125). A groundbreaking work that was nearly 20 years (and three children) in the making, "Kids' Slips" is the first major study of the speech errors of young children. It's too bad there isn't a shorter and less academic book on this fascinating topic for parents and parents-to-be.
3. "Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet From A to Z," by David Sacks (Broadway, $14.95). This paperback release of the hardcover titled "Language Visible" may be the bargain of the year. For 15 bucks, you get Sacks' introduction on the origins of the alphabet, 26 essays (one for each letter), numerous sidebars, and gorgeous maps and graphics.
2. "The Handbook of Language Variation and Change," edited by J.K. Chambers et al. (Blackwell, $47.95).
At 832 pages, this one won't fit in a stocking, but it fights the pervasive myth that language will disintegrate unless guardians of "good" grammar defend its virtue. This volume proves that language variety and change are constant, natural and fascinating to study.
1. "The Stories of English," by David Crystal (Overlook Press, $35). It's tempting to call this Crystal's magnum opus, but nearly every book the British linguist releases is an opus all its own. Crystal illustrates just how diverse English has been through its 1,500-year history. This is a fascinating narrative.
Honorable Mentions: "Larpers and Shroomers" by Susie Dent (Oxford University Press, $16.95); "The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time" by William Safire (Simon & Schuster, $27);"Word Spy: The Word Lover's Guide to Modern Culture," by Paul McFedries (Broadway, $15.95)"Language in the USA" edited by Edward Finegan et al. (Cambridge University Press, $34.99); "Human: The Definitive Visual Guide" by Robert Winston et al. (DK Publishing, $50); and "Hatchet Jobs and Hardball" by Grant Barrett (Oxford University Press, $25).
Books to look for in 2005: "Do You Speak American?" by Robert MacNeil and William Cran (Nan A. Talese); "A Natural History of Latin" by Tore Janson (Oxford University Press); "The Thinker's Thesaurus" by Peter Meltzer (Marion Street Press); "100 Words Every Word Lover Should Know" from American Heritage Dictionaries (Houghton Mifflin); and "The New Oxford American Dictionary," second edition, from Oxford University Press.
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