by Bill Bryson
Finnish, 16, 29, 88
Flemish, 3, 25, 35
Flesch, Rudolph, 157
Flexner, Stuart Berg, 162, 242
Flower, Kathy, 202
Follett, Wilson, 157
Follow Me, 202
fossil expressions, 82
Fowler, F. G., 153, 193
Fowler, H. W., 147, 152–53, 157, 193, 274
Fraffly, 118–19
France, 46, 51, 54, 101–2
Francien, 52–53
Francis, W. Nelson, 109
Franco, Francisco, 37
Franklin, Benjamin, 139, 169, 184, 191
French, 3, 4, 6, 30, 201
derivation of, 26–28, 46, 276
dialects of, 51, 123–24, 179
distinct sounds in, 101–2
English expressions in, 204–7
English influenced by, 75–76, 83, 101–2, 179
English speakers of, 51–52, 55–56, 134
grammar of, 34
protection and reform of, 150–51, 206–7
word games in, 259–60
fricatives, 94
Frisian, 43
Front de Libération de Québec (FLQ), 36
Funk & Wagnalls dictionary, 163
Gaelic, 5, 74, 76, 112
Breton, 37, 39
Irish, 7–8, 25–26, 30, 39–41, 66
Scottish, 25, 26, 34, 39–41, 66, 121
Welsh, 7–9, 17, 26, 38–39, 66, 87, 185
Gaeltacht, 40, 41
The Game of Words (Espy), 257
Gammer Gurton’s Needle, 245
Gatting, Mike, 250
Geechee, 123
gender, 10, 19, 29, 47, 54, 59
Genesis, Book of, 213
Gentleman’s Quarterly, 215
George I, king of England, 52
German, 3–6, 9, 10–11, 77, 86, 169, 184–86, 216–17, 275
dialects of, 33, 96
High vs. Low, 33, 96
Germanic languages, 86
divisions of, 25–26
English relationship to, 25–26, 42–43, 47, 53, 77, 96, 275
Germany, 42–43, 208
gestures, 31
Gettysburg Address, 214
Gibbon, Edward, 66, 246
Gil, Alexander, 149
Gladstone, William Ewart, 256
glossaries, 195
Goodrich, Chauncey A., 173
Gothic, 23, 26
Gove, Philip, 158
Government Printing Office, U.S., 141
Gowers, Ernest, 152, 157, 193–94
graffiti, 28, 198
grammar, 29, 145–50
arbitrary elements of, 146, 151–52
bending rules of, 146
children’s mastery of, 18–20, 21–22
common mistakes in, 147–48, 153–54, 156–58
complexity of, 149–50
Latin basis for, 7, 27–28, 149
Middle English, 56
Old English, 48
rules of, 153–54, 156–57
Scandinavian influence on, 50–51
Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae (Wallis), 149
A Grammatical Institute of the English Language(Webster), 170
Gray, Thomas, 62
Great Vowel Shift, 97–98
Greek, 23, 25, 31, 155, 254–55
Grimm, Jacob, 23
The Growth and Structure of the English Language (Jespersen), 64, 152, 157, 211, 262
Guarani, 35
Guardian, 217, 250
A Guide to Chaucer’s Language (Burnley), 59
Guinness Book of World Records,
256
Gullah, 123–25, 187
Guoyo, 201
Gutenberg Bible, 137
Gutenberg, Johann, 137
gutturals, 94
Harcourt, William, 248
Hardy, Thomas, 81
The Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage, 147
Harrington, John, 65
Harris, Joel Chandler, 124
Harrison, William Henry, 183
Harvey, William, 66
Hastings, Battle of, 134
Hawaiian, 90
Hayakawa, S. I., 270
Hayter, William, 263
Hemming, John, 65
Hendrickson, Robert, 111, 124
Henry IV, king of England, 51, 55
Henry IV (Shakespeare), 64, 255
Henry V, king of England, 56
Henry V (Shakespeare), 188
Highway Beautification Act, 262
Hindi, 25
hiragana, 128–29
Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, 210
historical linguistics, 22–28
History of the American Revolution (Ramsay), 183
A History of the English Language (Baugh and Cable), 53, 211
Hitler, Adolf, 37
Hittite, 16
Hofmannsthal, Hugo von, 9
Hogan, Paul, 116n
Holden, E. S., 164
Hollywood Production Code, 240, 249
holorimes, 260–61
Homo sapiens, 12–15
homonyms, 110
House of Lords, 193
Howard, Philip, 148, 161
Huckleberry Finn (Twain), 106
Hume, David, 191
humor, 256, 262–65
Hungarian, 37
Hyperlect, 119
Icelandic, 32
ideographs, 126–28
idiolect, 105
idioms, 81–82, 213, 215
Ilocano, 63
Independent, 42, 250
India, 3
languages and dialects of, 32, 201, 208
Indo-European languages, 15, 22–23
languages derived from, 24–28, 47, 86
infinitives, split, 156–57
infixes, 84
inflections, 19, 25, 30, 47, 48, 54, 145
Inoue, Kazuhisa, 210
International Phonetic Alphabet, 90, 176
Ireland, 26–29, 39–41, 112, 185
languages and dialects of, 7–9, 26, 30, 39–41, 66, 99, 115, 117
isoglosses, 107
Italian, 3–6, 33, 90, 203, 276
dialects of, 33, 74
Jackson, Andrew, 182
James I, king of England, 135
James II, king of England, 80
Japanese, 2, 8, 9, 16, 30, 76, 126–30
English expressions in, 198–99, 204–5
limitations of, 30, 209–10
writing in, 128–29
jargon, 9, 210–11
Jarrow, 46, 49
Jefferson, Thomas, 169, 180, 184, 191, 274
Jespersen, Otto, 47, 57, 64, 71, 78, 102, 116, 151, 157, 164, 211, 262
Jesus Christ, 217, 255
John F. Kennedy Institute, 19
John, king of England, 55
Johnson, Burges, 248
Johnson, Samuel, 52n, 151, 160, 165–69, 172, 190, 191–92, 246, 256
Joint National Committee on Languages, 217
Jones, William, 22–23
Jonson, Ben, 79, 245, 256
Joyce, James, 41, 256
Julius Caesar (Shakespeare), 245
Jutes, 44, 229
kanji, 128
katakana, 128
Katharevousa, 35
Keats, John, 62
Kelly, Obadiah, 182
King James Bible, 61, 161
The King’s English (Fowler and Fowler), 193
Kingston, Miles, 260–61
Knowler, John, 118
Korean, 9, 16, 270
Koster, Laurens Janszoon, 137
Krio, 21, 200
Kurath, Hans, 107, 110
Labov, William, 109, 113
Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Lawrence), 250
Laird, Charlton, 4, 43, 44, 97, 111, 136, 161, 169
Lallans, 122
Language Change: Progress or Decay (Aitchison), 101
“language police,” 36
language(s)
absorption and amalgamation of, 32–34, 74�
��77
ancient, 22–28
artificial creation of, 37, 211–12, 214–15, 264–66
banning and suppression of, 35–40, 206–7
bias and, 8, 187, 271
children’s mastery of, 17–22
classical, 22–23, 26–28, 149
dead, 22–24, 25–26, 28
decline and extinction of, 26, 35–41, 54
estimated number of, 31–32
evolution and change of, 12–17, 22–28, 32–33, 80–83, 96
familiarity vs. formality in, 9–10, 63–64
geographical placement of, 32–34
governmental protection of, 36–40, 206–7, 269–72
impact of social conditions on, 20–22, 34–35, 51–56
innate and instinctive properties of, 18–19, 22
local and specific needs of, 5–6, 24, 203–5, 264–66, 275–76
minority vs. majority, 35–41, 201, 269–72
national coexistence of, 3, 31–32, 35–41, 49–58, 198–99, 207–8, 269–72
newly created, 32
obfuscation in, 10–11, 210–11
official sanctioning of, 35–41, 201, 208, 269–72
political implications of, 35–41, 208–9, 269–72
private, 264–66
regional and national differences in, 6, 24–27, 32–40
relationships among, 15–16, 22–28, 34, 38–41
spontaneous and separate development of, 15–16, 77–78
theories on development of, 17–20, 71–72
written, 22–24
larynx, 13–14, 94
Lasus, 255
Latin, 23, 25–26, 254, 255
ecclesiastical use of, 34, 55
English relationship to, 7, 27–28, 46–57, 74–77, 81, 83, 149, 155, 241
grammar of, 7, 27–28, 145, 149, 155
languages descended from, 4–5, 26–28, 47, 96, 276
literary and scholarly use of, 26–28, 45–46, 49, 66, 149
series of changes in, 96
Vulgate form of, 27–28, 242
Lauder, Afferbeck, 115, 118
Let Stalk Strine (Lauder), 115
letters, 126–27, 255
capitalization of, 158, 260
double, 98, 99
Old English, 134
phasing in and out of, 134, 194, 212
silent, 95–97, 99, 113, 138–39, 230
Lévesque, René, 36
Lewis, Sinclair, 195
libraries, 168, 174
Lieberman, Philip, 14
Lindisfarne, 49
Linear B script, 23
lingua franca, 2
lingua latina, 27
lingua romana rustica, 27
Linguistic Atlas of England, 120
Linguistic Atlas of New England,
111
Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada, 111
lip reading, 95
lipograms, 255, 260
Lithuanian, 25
Ljung, Magnus, 202
Lloyd George, David, 66
Logonomia Anglica (Gil), 149
London, 50, 243
dialects of, 57–59, 60, 62, 92, 98, 118, 119–20, 187–88, 266–67
East End of, 266–68
Lord’s Prayer, 59, 61
Los Angeles Times, 259
The Lost Art of Profanity (Johnson), 248
Louis XIV, king of France, 152
Louisiana, 123–24, 187
Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare), 256
Love’s Labour’s Won (Shakespeare), 65
Lowth, Robert, 153–54, 156
Luorawetlan languages, 15–16
Maintenance of the Purity of the French Language, 206
Malay, 208
Malory, Thomas, 138, 147
Manx, 26, 41
Marlowe, Christopher, 136
Marryat, Frederick, 246
The Mayor of Casterbridge (Hardy), 81
McCormick, Robert R., 142
McCrum, Robert, 57, 148, 161–62
McKnight, G. H., 164
memory, 163
Mencken, H. L., 113, 141, 169, 188, 274
Menke, Hubertus, 42
Merriam, Charles, 172–73
Merriam, George, 172–73
Merriam-Webster International Dictionary, 72, 173
metanalysis, 63
metaphasis, 262–63
metaphors, mixed, 64
Mexican, 179
Middle Ages, 23, 74, 76, 77, 121, 221, 224, 259
Middle English, 53–63, 96, 98
Milton, John, 63, 68, 79
Minor, W. C., 174–75
The Miracle of Language (Laird), 4, 111
Mitterrand, François, 206
Moldavian, 34
Monde, Le, 206
Montagu, Ashley, 240, 241, 248
More, Sir Thomas, 66, 79
Morley, John David, 210
Morse code, 127
Moss, Norman, 192
Mulcaster, Richard, 66
Müller, Max, 162
Mundus Novus, 180
Murphy, John, 236
Murray, James Augustus Henry, 141, 173–76
Mussolini, Benito, 37
My Fair Lady (Lerner and Loewe), 142
Na-Dene, 16
names, 218–38
American, 224, 226–28, 231–34, 237–38
anglicizing of, 227, 231–35
British, 100, 218–26, 228–31, 236–38
business use of, 235–38
corruption and modification of, 63, 223, 227–29
of days, 44
distinctiveness of, 220–21, 222, 229, 232–34
family, 218–20, 223–28
of flora and fauna, 52, 83, 160–61, 247
of foods, 52, 83
multiple spellings of, 136, 176, 178, 228–29
occupations reflected in, 223–24
origins of, 220–27
pejorative use of, 187
pronunciation of, 92–93, 99–100, 218–20, 229–32
spelling of, 226–29
See also place names
National Education Association,
141
National Transportation Safety Board, 249
Natural History, 16
Neanderthal man, 12–15
Neighbours, 276
Neo-Melanesian, 20–21, 200
Neolithic peoples, 14–15, 24
The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 173–76
New World Indian languages, 16–17, 63, 74, 178, 182, 231
New York Evening Post, 192
New York Times, 4, 155, 158, 165, 210, 249, 254, 273
New York Times Magazine, 249
New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, 155, 249
New York World, 253
The New Yorker, 93
Newton, Isaac, 66, 79
nicknames, 63, 234
Nights with Uncle Remus (Harris), 124
Nixon, Richard M., 216, 249
Norman Conquest, 51, 54, 223, 228, 242
Norman French, 51–53
Normandy, 51–52, 54
Normans, 51–56, 74, 133–34, 228, 229
Norn, 50
Norse, 51
North, Frederick, Lord, 183
Northumbria, 46, 48–49
Notes on a Money Unit for the United States (Jefferson), 180
Notes on the State of Virginia (Jefferson), 191
nouns, 6–7, 47, 64, 99–100, 146
definitions of, 146
multiple spellings for, 130, 135, 175–76, 228–29
verbs as, 6–7, 64, 90, 101, 146, 191, 192
Novum Organum (Bacon), 66
number, 29, 48
Nunberg, Geoffrey D., 272
O’Brien, Conor Cruise, 40
obscenities, 173, 239–43, 245, 248, 250–51
Observer (London), 4, 198, 250, 274–75
Odell, Allan, 261–62
Ogden, C. K., 213
“O.K.,” 181�
�82, 242
Old English, 48–54, 56–57, 62, 155
modern English vs., 47, 72, 98, 241
Old Italian, 74
Old Norse, 51
onomasties, 223
onomatopoeia, 17, 90
The Origin of English Place Names (Reaney), 228
Orm, 135
orthoepy, 89, 104, 129, 131, 178, 220
Orton, Harold, 119–20
Oubykh, 32
OuLiPo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle), 260
Our Language (Potter), 49, 106, 195
Our Marvelous Native Tongue (Claiborne), 117, 148
Our Own Words (Dohan), 79, 178
Oxford English Dictionary (OED), 2, 4, 11, 57, 70, 72, 160, 173–76, 189, 217, 249, 274
The Oxford Guide to Word Games (Augarde), 255
Oxford University, 3, 55, 58, 119, 184, 262–63
palindromes, 127, 256–57, 260
Paris, 51, 52–53, 56
Parliament, British, 55, 192–93, 245, 247
Parti Québécois, 36
participles, 149, 204
parts of speech, 135–37. See also specific parts of speech
Partridge, Eric, 157
Patrick, Saint, 45n
Pei, Mario, 28, 31, 34, 63, 75, 80–81, 115, 117, 130, 162, 180, 226, 249
Peking, 89
Pennsylvania Dutch, 185–86, 235
Pentagon, 211
Pepys, Samuel, 220
Perec, Georges, 259–60
Persian, 22, 23
Peterborough Chronicle, 54
Philadelphia Inquirer, 250
phonetics, 89–91, 93
phonies, 87
pictographs, 126, 129
Pictures from the Water Trade (Morley), 210
pidgin languages, 20–22
Pierce, John R., 91
pilgrims, 177
Pippa Passes (Browning), 73–74
Pitman, Isaac, 140
place names
American, 93, 100, 178, 179–80
British, 46, 50, 221–24, 225, 228–31
etymology of, 46, 50, 220–23
family names based on, 225
old pronunciation surviving in, 99–100
of pubs, 220–23
slurring and truncating of, 92–93
of streets, 220, 243
Platt, James, 174
plosives, 94
plurals, 21, 59, 60–62, 73, 156, 202
poetry, English, 41, 48, 57, 98–99, 100–101, 255–56
Point, Le, 207
Polish, 2, 203, 216
Polk, James K., 228
polysemy, 70–72
Pope, Alexander, 100
Portuguese, 25, 26, 34, 193, 201, 209
potato famine of 1845, 40, 185
Potter, Simeon, 47, 49, 57, 80, 90, 106, 131
predicates, 146
prefixes, 83–85
prepositions, 153–54
Press Council, 250
Priestley, Joseph, 151
Principia (Newton), 66
printing press, invention of, 136–37
pronouns, 9, 47, 48, 51, 61, 63
pronunciation, 7, 8, 87–104
British vs. American, 171–72,
188
duration and resonance in, 90
eighteenth-century, 104, 112
