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By hook or by crook : a journey in search of English / David Crystal.

by Crystal, David, 1941-

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Overlook Press, 2008, c2007.

English language -- History.

English language -- Transmutation.

Historical linguistics.

xiv, 314 p. : ill, map ; 24 cm.

Originally published: London : HarperPress, 2007.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [287]-291) and indexes.

By hook or by crook : Gaerwen -- Making a beeline : Menai -- We want information : Portmeiron -- Where are you from? : Welshpool -- Good evening, each : Birmingham -- Book-browser syndrome : Hay -- Now Godiva was a lady : Leominster -- The robot's not working : Risbury -- Who was Leonard Slye? : Stratford -- Shall we shog? : Kolkata -- A rash of dermatologists : Arden -- A wheelbarrow called Wilberforce : Lichfield -- How do you like your eggs? : San Francisco -- My husband is without : Łódź -- I'm Jack : Llangollen.

"David Crystal has been described by the Times Higher Education Supplement as a 'latter-day Samuel Johnson.' Now, in a delightfully discursive journey through the groves and thickets of the English language, Crystal sets off again, combining personal reflections, historical allusions, and traveler's observations to create a mesmerizing and entertaining narrative account of his encounters with the language and its speakers. Starting in his home of Wales and moving from England all the way to Poland and off to San Francisco, Crystal encounters numerous linguistic side roads that he cannot resist exploring. All are subject to Crystal's inquisitive exploration--from pubs to trains to Tolkien--and each digression casts new light on the development of English as it is spoken today. By Hook or By Crook is a linguistic travelogue like no other, and an attempt to capture the seductive, quirky, teasing, tantalizing nature of the language itself--a jaunty Bill Bryson-esque exploration of language by a foremost expert on the subject."--Dustjacket.

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