Spell It Out
The singular story of English spelling
-
-
4.5 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- £5.99
-
- £5.99
Publisher Description
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 their 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.
Customer Reviews
Crystal does it again
David Crystal's history of spelling is interesting, rewarding and insightful.
His approach throughout is to explain spelling patterns in relation to pronunciation and etymology. He achieves this while running chronologically through key historical developments in spelling. The result is a book that feels like much more than just a "history of spelling". It will actually teach you some principles that may improve your own spelling!
Some chapters drift close to outstaying their welcome (one example too many in a few cases). Generally, however, his style is so clear, concise and enthusiastic that reading never becomes a chore. His thoughts on how the Internet has and will continue to influence spelling are presented in a particularly passionate and logical way, although no doubt some will be horrified by his ideas.
There seems to be a trend in schools to move back towards random spelling lists under the belief that it fulfils some sort of literacy objective. One of the most memorable sections of Crystal's book is the appendix, in which he thoroughly undermines the value of these random spelling lists by pointing out the silliness of learning words like "handkerchief", "Wednesday" and "stationary" together. His comments on the teaching of spelling make a lot of sense and would form the basis of an excellent whole school literacy programme.
Or should that be "program"?