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Spell bound | |
Publisher: Delta
Author: James Essinger
US$13.00
ISBN 978-0-385-34084-7
'As users of the English language we're utterly bound to the most outrageous, illogical, idiosyncratic spelling system in the world.' With these words the author introduces his book on English spelling. The charming idea behind the book is that if we know the origins of English spelling, we are more likely to understand how particular words came to be spelled the way they were. And when you know the story of a particular word, you are more likely to remember its spelling. To be honest, it does not really matter whether this idea is correct or not. The book is such as fascinating exploration of how words got into the English language that it's worth reading even if it does not improve your spelling at all. Did you know that the word 'intellgensia' was taken from the Russians, who got it from the Poles who took it from Latin? Or that the letter 'm' gets its wavy shape because it was the Egyptian heirograph for water? That about 350 million people have English as a first language?
All these facts and many more are packed into 305 pages and three main chapters.There's a bibliography, and a rather pointless index at the end. At the start is an introduction in which the author passionately describes the reason why correct spelling is a Good Thing, and argues the case for having a written language as if there were anyone who seriously disagrees. The first chapter is entitled 'Method in the Madness' which explains that English spelling is illogical, but there's a reason for the lack of logic. For example many words starting with 'ph' got into the language from Greek (phoenetics, photograph) and the English, being rather conservative, tended to keep the spelling of words that they borrowed from others. So we spell 'orange' the way the Spanish did, and 'syrup' the way we imagine the Arabs did. Chapter two takes us through the origins of the alphabet. This may not help with spelling, but its fascinating to know, for example that 'D' was once the symbol for a door (the Greeks turned it sideways)and 'H' still looks as it originally was - a pictogram for a fence. Part three takes us through the history of English and its spelling, from before Anglo-Saxon times to the present day, and on to some theories as to how spelling will evolve in the future. We learn how printing affected the development of standard spellings, and of the huge influence of early lexographers such as Johnson and Webster. For ideological reasons Mr Webster campaigned hard to make American English different to British English, and it is largely due to him that Americans spell some words such as 'colour' without the 'u', and leave off one 'l' in words such as 'jewellery'.
Who is this book for? Anyone who likes English will love this book, simply because the author's love of language shines through every paragraph. Whether he is telling you that a television is a 'picture-thrower' in Icelandic, or that the word 'bizarre' comes from the Basques,he does so with great enthusiasm. If readers come to care about English the way Mr Essinger does, they probably will improve their spelling. After all, you take care with things you love. You can read the author's own comments about the book at http://www.jamesessinger.com/spellbound.htm
Verdict: Teaches the history of English rather than spelling
Assessment 8/10