Welcome to Litsy!

When you love languages and you read a book by a linguist, you start to need 3 different highlighting colours for different informations... I can see myself becoming even more of a geek ;)

Snippets on sixty European languages, like mini-portraits. Closest to root language PIE (Proto-Indo-European), 200 generations of little alteration? Lithuanian. Smallest language w/ Nobel Lit Prize winner? Icelandic. Effects of geography, trade, warfare, intentional language preservation. Belarusian: Cyrillic or Roman alphabet? Would love a similar easy-read on Asian & African language families. 2014

P101 “A language is a dialect with an army.”

Today is the first really cold day we‘ve had this fall, so I took advantage of it to finish this book by the Fire with a mug of tea. Entertaining as well as informative, Dorren gives a taste of several languages, offers up words he thinks English should borrow, and explains how various languages are related (or not). A pick for word nerds. #bookspin

Horrible picture, because I was trying to be surreptitious as I read this over lunch. #bookspin

A good way to start off the reading year! Frustrating at first, as I was expecting a bit more depth about each language, but if that notion had come to fruition, the book would have to occupy multiple volumes! What “Lingo” ends up being is a sampler, much like a box of candy, with tasty examples of the quirks and appeals of each of Europe‘s 60 main languages. A fun overview with only a couple of conceits that don‘t quite hit their mark.

“Armenian is to the family of Indo-European languages what the platypus is to mammals.” p 268

Ooooooh, this‘un‘s gonna make my nerdy little heart very happy! 🥰

On dialects/grammar/ language evolution:
But today's errors tend to become tomorrow's correct usage. ..

I liked the structure - small essays in each language. This book is funny, interesting and informative and I liked dipping in and out instead of reading each essay one after the other.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#nonfiction #languagenerd

#OwnVoices: There's a history behind this one, and it's complex, but the intention is that authors who share the same (or close to) underrepresented identity as their main character can be more easily found/identified by literary agents, publishers, and readers. Links to more info in comments.

Repped or repped by: Typically found in Twitter profiles, it's shorthand to identify the name of the literary agent an author is represented by.

Here are today's terms!

WIP: Often preceded by a # around social media, this is when authors are discussing their Work In Progress.

CP: This is social media shorthand for Critique Partner, which is when authors critique the WIPs of their author friends, generally with heavy use of track changes/comments in MS Word.

And if you have a moment, new Litten @SEWhite could use some welcome messages over on their profile. :) #LitsyWelcomeWagon

Truth

I love language. I love learning about how languages evolve. I love words. Lately, I've decided that I'm going to obtain a PhD in linguistics. Therefore, this book is the bomb.