Download or read book Motherfocl ir written by Darach O'Séaghdha and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-07 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bestseller & Winner of the Popular Non-Fiction Irish Book Award. 'Thought-provoking, irreverent and often laugh-out-loud hilarious' Irish Independent. "Motherfoclóir" [focloir means 'dictionary' and is pronounced like a rather more vulgar English epithet] is a book based on the popular Twitter account @theirishfor. As the title suggests, Motherfoclóir takes an irreverent, pun-friendly and contemporary approach to the Irish language. The translations are expanded on and arranged into broad categories that allow interesting connections to be made, and sprinkled with anecdotes and observations about Irish and Ireland itself, as well as language in general. The author includes stories about his own relationship with Irish, and how it fits in with the most important events in his life. This is a book for all lovers of the quirks of language.
Download or read book Red Herrings And White Elephants written by Albert Jack and published by Metro Publishing. This book was released on 2007-04-10 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever wondered what phrases such as 'square meal', 'load of old codswallop', 'egg on your face' or 'in the limelight' mean? Where do they come from? Have you ever taken a moment to wonder what we say actually means? The origins of hundreds of common phrases are explained in this irreverent journey through the most fascinating and richest regions of the English language. In a book that takes you all over the world, from nautical origins to food and drink terms, once you have learnt one phrase, you will be eager to learn them all! From the drop of a hat to the bitter end - you'll be surprised and intrigued and you'll never speak English in the same way again.
Download or read book The Welsh Language written by Janet Davies and published by University of Wales Press. This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The existence of the Welsh-language can come as a surprise to those who assume that English is the foundation language of Britain. However, J. R. R. Tolkien described Welsh as the 'senior language of the men of Britain'. Visitors from outside Wales may be intrigued by the existence of Welsh and will want to find out how a language which has, for at least fifteen hundred years, been the closest neighbour of English, enjoys such vibrancy, bearing in mind that English has obliterated languages thousands of miles from the coasts of England. This book offers a broad historical survey of Welsh-language culture from sixth-century heroic poetry to television and pop culture in the early twenty-first century. The public status of the language is considered and the role of Welsh is compared with the roles of other of the non-state languages of Europe. This new edition of The Welsh Language offers a full assessment of the implications of the linguistic statistics produced by the 2011 Census. The volume contains maps and plans showing the demographic and geographic spread of Welsh over the ages, charts examining the links between words in Welsh and those in other Indo-European languages, and illustrations of key publications and figures in the history of the language. It concludes with brief guides to the pronunciation, the dialects and the grammar of Welsh.
Download or read book A Line Made by Walking written by Sara Baume and published by Random House. This book was released on 2017-02-16 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'When I finished Sara Baume's new novel I immediately felt sad that I could not send it in the post to the late John Berger. He, too, would have loved it and found great joy in its honesty, its agility, its beauty, its invention. Baume is a writer of outstanding grace and style. She writes beyond the time we live in.' Colum McCann Struggling to cope with urban life - and with life in general - Frankie, a twenty-something artist, retreats to the rural bungalow on 'turbine hill' that has been vacant since her grandmother's death three years earlier. It is in this space, surrounded by nature, that she hopes to regain her footing in art and life. She spends her days pretending to read, half-listening to the radio, failing to muster the energy needed to leave the safety of her haven. Her family come and go, until they don't and she is left alone to contemplate the path that led her here, and the smell of the carpet that started it all. Finding little comfort in human interaction, Frankie turns her camera lens on the natural world and its reassuring cycle of life and death. What emerges is a profound meditation on the interconnectedness of wilderness, art and individual experience, and a powerful exploration of human frailty.
Download or read book Inventing English written by Seth Lerer and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-25 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of English from the age of Beowulf to the rap of Eminem, “written with real authority, enthusiasm and love for our unruly and exquisite language” (The Washington Post). Many have written about the evolution of grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, but only Seth Lerer situates these developments within the larger history of English, America, and literature. This edition of his “remarkable linguistic investigation” (Booklist) features a new chapter on the influence of biblical translation and an epilogue on the relationship of English speech to writing. A unique blend of historical and personal narrative, both “erudite and accessible” (The Globe and Mail), Inventing English is the surprising tale of a language that is as dynamic as the people to whom it belongs. “Lerer is not just a scholar; he's also a fan of English—his passion is evident on every page of this examination of how our language came to sound—and look—as it does and how words came to have their current meanings…the book percolates with creative energy and will please anyone intrigued by how our richly variegated language came to be.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Download or read book Spilling the Beans on the Cat s Pyjamas written by Judy Parkinson and published by Michael O'Mara Books. This book was released on 2011-02-17 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spilling the Beans on the Cat's Pyjamas provides us with the meanings of our well-worn and much-loved phrases by putting these linguistic quirks in context, and explaining how and why they were first used.
Download or read book English for the Natives written by Harry Ritchie and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2013-10-10 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'My first English lesson was grammar with the terrifying Mrs Petrie. She spent the entire time marching up and down the classroom, thwacking various items of school furniture with a ruler while she banged on about the ING part of the verb. I sat there, vibrating with fear, desperately trying to figure out what on earth she could mean. Irregular Negative Gerund? Intransitive Nominative Genitive? It was only years later, when I was teaching English to foreign students, that I realised that English grammar wasn't obscure and wilfully difficult but a fascinating subject which I was already brilliant at - and this book will prove that you are too.' Forget the little you think you know about English grammar and start afresh with this highly entertaining and accessible guide. English for the Natives outlines the rules and structures of our language as they are taught to foreign students - and have never before been explained to us. Harry Ritchie also examines the grammar of dialects as well as standard English and shows how non-standard forms are just as valid. With examples from a wide variety of sources, from Ali G to John Betjeman, Margaret Thatcher to Match of the Day, this essential book reveals some surprising truths about our language and teaches you all the things you didn't know you knew about grammar.
Download or read book How to Talk Like a Local written by Susie Dent and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-03-04 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Susie Dent is a national treasure' RICHARD OSMAN 'Susie Dent is a one-off. She breathes life and fun into words and language' PAM AYRES __________________________________________ Would you be bewildered if someone described you as radgy? Do you know how to recognise a tittamatorter? And would you understand if someone called you a culchie? How to Talk Like a Local gathers together hundreds of words from all over the country and digs down to uncover their origins. From dardledumdue, which means daydreamer in East Anglia, through forkin robbins, the Yorkshire term for earwigs, to clemt, a Lancashire word that means hungry, it investigates an astonishingly rich variety of regional expressions, and provides a fascinating insight into the history of the English language. If you're intrigued by colourful words and phrases, if you're interested in how English is really spoken, or if you simply want to find out a bit more about the development of our language, How to Talk Like a Local is irresistible - and enlightening - reading. __________________________________________________ 'Nobody on earth knows more about the English language than Susie Dent and nobody writes about it more entertainingly' GYLES BRANDRETH 'It's an interesting and, at times, hilarious read. One for word-lovers' THE SUN
Download or read book The Last Lingua Franca written by Nicholas Ostler and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2011 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of "Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin" presents an erudite and provocative examination of the rise and coming fall of English as the world's language. Illustrations. Maps.
Download or read book Spill Simmer Falter Wither written by Sara Baume and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2015 LONGLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD 2015 LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2016 WINNER OF THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR, IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2015 WINNER OF THE GEOFFREY FABER MEMORIAL PRIZE FOR FICTION You find me on a Tuesday, on my Tuesday trip to town. A note sellotaped to the inside of the jumble-shop window: COMPASSIONATE & TOLERANT OWNER. A PERSON WITHOUT OTHER PETS & WITHOUT CHILDREN UNDER FOUR. A misfit man finds a misfit dog. Ray, aged fifty-seven, ‘too old for starting over, too young for giving up’, and One Eye, a vicious little bugger, smaller than expected, a good ratter. Both are accustomed to being alone, unloved, outcast – but they quickly find in each other a strange companionship of sorts. As spring turns to summer, their relationship grows and intensifies, until a savage act forces them to abandon the precarious life they’d established, and take to the road. Spill Simmer Falter Wither is a wholly different kind of love story: a devastating portrait of loneliness, loss and friendship, and of the scars that are more than skin-deep. Written with tremendous empathy and insight, in lyrical language that surprises and delights, this is an extraordinary and heartbreaking debut by a major new talent
Download or read book A Little Book of Language written by David Crystal and published by . This book was released on 2025-04-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively journey through the story of language, from an infant's first word to the languages of the internet Language never leaves you alone. It's there in your head, helping you think. It's there to help you make relationships - and to break them. It's there to remind you who you are and where you come from. From the first words of an infant to texting and emojis, languages are full of mysteries and quirks. In this entertaining book, renowned author David Crystal sheds light on the development of unique linguistic styles, the origins of obscure accents, and the search for the first written word. Little Histories - Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds
Download or read book The Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases written by Jennifer Speake and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep written by Albert Jack and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2009-11-10 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The English language is crammed with colourful phrases and sayings that we use without thinking every day. It�s only when we�re asked who smart Alec or Holy Moly were, where feeling in the pink or once in a blue moon come from, or even what letting the cat out of the bag really means that we realize that there�s far more to English than we might have thought. Luckily enough, we now have Albert Jack. And rather than resting on his laurels after the enormous success of Red Herrings and White Elephants, he has continued his search around the world, exploring the origins of hundreds more phrases. The fascinating stories he has uncovered come from the rich traditions of the navy, army and law to confidence tricksters and highwaymen, from the practices of ancient civilizations to Music Hall and pubs. Determined to chase each shaggy dog story to the bitter end, his discoveries are even stranger and more memorable this time round. Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep is a compulsively readable, highly enlightening look at the phrases we use all the time but rarely consider. From the skin of your teeth to the graveyard shift � you�ll never speak (or even think) English in the same way again.
Download or read book Mrs Byrne s Dictionary of Unusual Obscure and Preposterous Words written by Josefa Heifetz and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Buntus Cainte written by Tomas O'Domhnallain and published by . This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Craic Baby written by Darach O'Séaghdha and published by Apollo. This book was released on 2019-06-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do we talk about when we talk about Irish? When we talk about saving or supporting a language do we mean the musical combination of syllables, or something more profound? How do new words enter a language, and what is the relationship between that strange dialect called Hiberno-English and its parent language? Craic Baby picks up exactly where Motherfoclóir left off and explores the very new and very old parts of the Irish language from a personal perspective. While Motherfoclóir was steeped in memory and a father-son relationship, Craic Baby hinges on the beginnings of a father-daughter relationship, and how watching a child learn to communicate changes how you think about language.