Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, ... With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory
 | Macmillan Audio, 2008, Audio CD Customer Rating: 12 reviews Recommend |
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Product Description
Ali G: How many words does you know?
Noam Chomsky: Normally, humans, by maturity, have tens of thousands of them.
Ali G: What is some of 'em?
— Youtube.com After forty years of making a living using words in every medium, print or electronic, except greeting cards, Roy Blount Jr. still can’t get over his ABCs. In Alphabet Juice, he celebrates the juju, the sonic and kinetic energies of letters and their combinations. Blount does not prescribe proper English. The franchise he claims is “over the counter” and concentrates more on questions such as these: Did you know that both mammal and matter derive from baby talk? Have you noticed how wince makes you wince?Three and a half centuries ago, Sir Thomas Blount produced Blount’s Glossographia, the first dictionary to explore derivations of English words. This Blount’s Glossographia takes that pursuit to other levels. It rejects the standard linguistic notion that the connection between words and their meanings is “arbitrary.” Even the word arbitrary is shown to be no more arbitrary, at its roots, than go-to guy or crackerjack. From sources as venerable as the OED (in which Blount finds an inconsistency, at whisk) and as fresh as Urbandictionary.com (to which Blount has contributed the number-one definition of “alligator arm”), and especially from the author’s own wide-ranging experience, Alphabet Juice derives an organic take on language that is unlike, and more fun than, any other.
Product Details
Title: Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, ... With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory
Sales Rank: 509876 in Books
Author: Roy Blount Jr.
Publisher: Macmillan Audio, Abridged edition, 2008-10-14, Audio CD, ISBN: 1427204934
Package Dimensions: 5.7 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches, 0.3 pounds
Customer Reviews
- kudos to Roy Blount Jr. for Alphabet Juice
- True to its engaging title, which is why I wanted to read it, Roy Blount's Alphabet Juice is indeed full of examples of usage "foul and savory." I like it because I agree so often with what he says about misused and overused words like awesome, just, hopefully, literally, incredible--as well as ungrammatical oral uses of myself, for you and I, and careless contructions with… More reviews
- blunt about blount
- If you are interested in Roy Blount Jr. you may like this book. If you are interested in modern English usage,witty excursions into etymology, comic commentary on the ways of words, "the weave of word-craft," to borrow from the Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf, then you may want your money back. This ramble through the alphabet is really about Blount Jr.,… More reviews
- Fascinating but shallow
- Mr. Blount's style is vigorous and entertaining, if opinionated and shallow. In short it offers the kind of sloppy commentary one often hears on NPR. Because of his archness, I have no idea how to appraise his opinions, for example about the Indo-European origins of English. Nonetheless, I enjoy glancing at the book in idle moments. Some of his comments on "good" writing seem worth while… More reviews
- Got the Juice!
- This tidy tome is an excellent exposition on the possible origins of language. The etymology of words can be debated, and should be, but Blount makes a convincing case that phoentics are the social Darwinism that drives the beastie that is language. This book is dense, and I am still wading through it, but I think it is an incredible resource for the clever linguist,… More reviews
- Alphabet Juice
- Roy Blount writes about words and phrases, style, and effectiveness with the authority of a serious linguist and with the sense of immediacy that reflects his enthusiasm in telling me, the reader, how I can benefit in applying what he has learned.
More reviews
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