Books like Through the language glass by Guy Deutscher

A curated collection of Ursula K. Le Guin’s essays, reviews and introductions that reveal her insights on books, authorship and contemporary fiction.

A practical guide to crafting artificial languages for writers, gamers, and language enthusiasts, with tools, history, and case studies from famous fictional tongues.

This fascinating book takes invented languages and explores the origins, purpose, and usage of these curious artefacts of culture. Written by experts in the field, chapters discuss a wide range of languages - from Esperanto to Klingon - and uncover the motives behind their creation and the outcomes of their existence.

"Linguini is the garbage boy who becomes a chef--with a little help from a rat named Remy!"--Cover back.

A practical guide for creating vivid, usable languages for role‑playing, fantasy, science fiction, movies, video games, and even global communication.

"Japanese has a term that covers both green and blue. Russian has separate terms for dark and light blue. Does this mean that Russians perceive these colors differently from Japanese people? Does language control and limit the way we think, such that each language gives its speakers a different 'worldview?' This opinionated book addresses the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which argues that the language we speak shapes the way we perceive the world. Linguist John McWhorter argues that while this idea is mesmerizing, it is plainly wrong... McWhorter shows not only how the idea of language as a lens fails but also why we want so badly to believe it: we're eager to celebrate diversity by acknowledging the intelligence of peoples who may not think like we do. Though well-intentioned, our belief in this idea poses an obstacle to a better understanding of human nature and even trivializes the people we seek to celebrate. The reality--that all humans think alike--provides another, better way for us to acknowledge the intelligence of all peoples."--book jacket.

"The Language Reader is part of the Managed Reader Program, which are a cluster of single-topic readers that are brief-to-medium in length and include a short section on rhetorical strategies and research work, as well as writing process, and all of which have a common pedagogy. The readings in these books include global perspectives and non-mainstream sources, and they are a manageable size. The Language Reader is a reader that reflects the central and complex topic of language, as it reflects upon new realities of the multilingual college classroom, and speaks to ideas and issues important to generation 1.5 learners. Developed for the freshman composition course, the reader includes an interdisciplinary mix of public, academic, and scientific reading selection; and it gives students with the rhetorical knowledge and compositional skills to participate in discussions about language, learning, and the writing process"--

"Spins the reader on a whirlwind tour of sixty European languages and dialects, sharing quirky moments from their histories and exploring their commonalities and differences ... [and taking] us into today's remote mountain villages of Switzerland, where Romansh is still the lingua franca, to formerly Soviet Belarus, a country whose language was Russified by the Bolsheviks, to Sweden, where up until the 1960s polite speaking conventions required that one never use the word 'you' in conversation"--Amazon.com.

A vibrant look at how languages overlap and diverge, inviting young readers to compare words, sounds, and meanings across cultures.

An exploration of the languages that shaped American writers' identities and writing styles.

David Crystal has been described by The Times Higher Education Supplement as a "latter-day Samuel Johnson." Now in a delightfully decisive journey through the groves and thickets of the English language, he combines personal reflections, historical allusions, and traveler' s observations to create a mesmerizing and entertaining narrative account of his encounters with the language and its speakers. Starting in his British home and moving all the way to Poland and off to San Francisco, Crystal encounters numerous linguistic side roads that he cannot resist exploring. All is subject to Crystal's inquisitive exploration -- from pubs to trains to Tolkien -- and each digression casts new light on the development of English as it is spoken today. By Hook or by Crook is a linguistic travelogue like no other, an attempt to capture the seductive, quirky, teasing, tantalizing nature of language itself -- a jaunty, Bill Bryson-esque exploration of language by our foremost expert on the subject. - Jacket flap.

*Language Exploration and Awareness: A Resource Book for Teachers, Third Edition* shows English teachers how they can expand their curriculum beyond the traditional emphases on grammar and syntax, to help their students learn about many aspects of the English language--including general semantics, regional and social dialects, syntax, spelling, history of the English language, social language conventions, lexicography, and word origins. Clear, practical, and reader-friendly, the text reviews basic aspects of English language study in classrooms, then illustrates how teachers can create student-centered, inquiry-oriented activities for the learners in their classrooms. Written from a sociocultural perspective, this text stresses the uses of authentic language as it is used by real people for real purposes in diverse social contexts. Changes in the Third Edition: - All chapters have been thoroughly updated to address new developments in the world and in the field of English and language arts education. - The chapters in Section II include new *Student Explorations*--activities designed by pre- and in-service teachers that readers can use with students in their classrooms. - New in this edition are references throughout several chapters to Web sites that instructors and students will find useful. This text is intended as text for undergraduate and master's level English language arts courses on the pedagogies of language teaching, and as an introduction to language or introduction to linguistics courses--particularly those emphasizing language study from a sociocultural perspective; and for courses preparing teachers of English as a new language. The text is also intended as a resource for current classroom teachers. This description comes from the publisher.

Essentials of English usage, pronunciation, idioms, and common errors, written by New York Times columnist William Safire.

The First Word charts science’s breakthrough into the mystery of human language, weaving research from linguistics, genetics, and cognitive science to explain how our ability to talk evolved.