Righting the Mother Tongue - From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling

When did ghost acquire its silent h? Will cyberspace kill the one in rhubarb? And was it really rocket scientists who invented spell-check? David Wolman answers these questions and more in Righting the Mother Tongue. Wolman takes students on the journey of Seven-hundred years of trial, error, and reform that have made the history of English spelling a jumbled and fascinating mess. Wolman tells the cockamamie story of English spelling, by way of a worldly adventure-from English battlefields to Google headquarters. Along the way, he joins spelling reformers picketing the national spelling bee, visits the town in Belgium where the first English books were printed, and takes a road trip with the boss at Merriam-Webster Inc. Righting the Mother Tongue is a captivating story rich with history, pop culture, curiosity, and humor that shows students how English spelling came to be, traces efforts to mend the code, and imagines the shape of tomorrow''s words.

About the author

DAVID WOLMAN is a Contributing Editor at Outside. He has written for the Wired, the New York Times, New Yorker, Nature, and many other publications, and his work has been anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series. He is the author of The End of Money, Righting the Mother Tongue, and A Left-Hand Turn Around the World. David lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family.

Product details

• Authors: David Wolman, Wolman David
• Publisher: Harper Perennial USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 23.03.2010
• EAN: 9780061369261
• ISBN: 978-0-06-136926-1
• No. of pages: 224
• Dimensions: 135 mm x 203 mm x 13 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other languages / Other literatures; HISTORY: Social History, COMPOSITION & WRITING: ON LANGUAGE, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: General, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: Linguistics / General, EDUCATION: Teaching Methods & Materials / General, FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY: English as a Second Language, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: Lexicography, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: Study & Teaching, EDUCATION: Teaching / General, EDUCATION: Teaching / Subjects / Language Arts