Title:
Native tongues / by Charles Berlitz.
Main Entry:
Berlitz, Charles, 1914-2003.
Publisher:
Grosset & Dunlap,
Publication Date:
�1982.
Publication Place:
New York :
ISBN:
0448123363
9780448123363
Subject:
Language and languages.
Langage et langues.
Language and languages.
Contents:
There are 2,796 languages in the world -- How languages started -- How languages spread and decline -- 1066 and the French invasion of English -- How you can turn thousands of English words into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, or Dutch -- Language, gender, and sex -- Language incidents that changed history -- Rallying cries of conquest, defiance, or prayer -- Words of love and admiration -- Insults and profanity around the world -- Ethnic slurs and the comparatively innocent origins -- Same sounds -- different meaning -- Language survival and survival through language -- Clicks, whistles, gestures, and musical scales -- Counting -- fingers, toes, and computers -- Our mysterious alphabet -- An Asian script of subtlety and humor.
Cont.): Languages lost -- and found again -- Word frequency and some surprises -- Some evocative names for animals -- Do animals have a language? -- Undiplomatic translations -- What's in a name: places -- What's in a name: people -- The view from the tribe -- There were others before Columbus -- The local coloring of proverbs -- The levels of politeness -- Hello and goodbye -- The world's shortest phrasebook in the most languages -- Odd origins and changing meanings -- Palindromes, nonstop words, tongue twisters, and historic puns -- The language of revolution -- Military codes and linguistic deceptions -- Secret languages, crime, and slang -- Languages in space -- English vs. American -- The export of English words -- Someday -- a world language.
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