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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
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
October 2008
On Sale: October 14, 2008
384 pages
ISBN: 0374103690
EAN: 9780374103699
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
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? —Da Ali G Show Did you know that both mammal and matter
derive from baby talk? Have you noticed how wince makes you
wince? Ever wonder why so many h-words have to do with
breath? Roy Blount Jr. certainly has, and after forty years
of making a living using words in every medium, print or
electronic, except greeting cards, he still can’t get over
his ABCs. In Alphabet Juice, he celebrates the electricity,
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.” Three and a half centuries ago, 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, from Proto-Indo-
European roots to your epiglottis. 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 root, 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.
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