Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme--And Other Oddities of the English Language

ISBN: 0197539408

Author: Arika Okrent

Mignon Fogarty author of Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, I love everything about this book. Arika Okrent is insightful, funny, and answers questions you didn't even know you had! Gretchen McCulloch author of Because Internet and host of Lingthusiasm, Arika Okrent is the best at taking oft-repeated stories about English and pushing them a step deeper. If you buy one "fun facts about English" book, make it this one. Lively explanations from Okrent plus charming drawings by O'Neill make for a highly engaging book perfect for answering your (or your kid's) questions about the oddities of the English language. Lane Greene author of Talk on the Wild Side and You Are What You Speak, Don't let the joy of reading these stories fool you. Arika Okrent brings real intellectual heft to researching them. As you find yourself eagerly passing them on, you'll realize how much serious stuff about language you've learned too. John McWhorter Professor of Linguistics at Columbia University, host of the language podcast Lexicon Valley, and Contributing Editor at The Atlantic, Arika Okrent has done the magic trick of compiling the kinds of questions the general public actually asks about language, instead of the kinds of questions we linguists would LIKE the public to ask. Everybody-including many linguists!-will feast on every page. Book jacket.