Native Tongue

Book Description

Who let the voles out? The precious, blue-tongued mango voles have been stolen from the Amazing Kingdom theme park on North Key Largo by ruthless thugs who have much bigger-and deadlier-things in mind. On the hunt for the rare rodents is Joe Winder, a burned-out ex-muckraking reporter who now works for the park as their PR man. Even as a scandal breaks out over the theft, Winder finds himself trailing an eco-terrorist geriatric, a certain former-governor-turned-swamp rat, and sleazy land developer Francis X. Kingsbury. Determined to uncover the true nature of the Kingdom, Winder must survive this harrowing wilderness-before the natives get to him....

Customer Reviews:

I smell a rat!.......2007-07-10

Mickey Rat that is. Carl Hiaasen does it again with an imaginative poke at the big boys in Orlando with Native Tongue. As you can expect there are environmental undertones to the story, but that's what makes this one so lovable with an ensemble of screwball characters that are all too believable. Hiaasen does a fantastic job of painting a picture that reveals more of Florida's odd residents as well as its fragile beauty.

James A. Forrest - Eye of the Storm

Preserving the environment.......2007-07-09

This is one of the author's earlier novels, and has the anti-development theme found in some other novels. It has the usual cast of characters found in Hiaasen's novels, a little off the wall. An entertainment park claims to have the last pair of a rare species of animal, or are they? The story starts with a theft, and events go forward from there. The owner (with a shady psst) will destroy the environment for profit. Various people oppose him, including one of his PR writers, a save-the-environment group composed of older retirees, and a strange man who lives in the woods. Some people on both sides seem willing to steal, burn, and kill.

The action takes place over a relatively short period of time as various people become involved, are battered, shot, killed, etc. The novel contains violence, language, and some sexual content (not graphic) with some scenes that are obscene (but funny), e.g., the incident with the porpoise and the chief of security (be very careful swimming with a male porpoise). The novel is for adults only.

Take it from a Brooklynite transplanted to Florida, Hiaasen is on the mark........2007-06-14

Carl Hiaasen is a one-of-a-kind, social satirist cum activist. His books ARE Florida today. "Native Tongue" does it again. Right on the mark with rapier wit, juggling what seems to be too many characters, too many subplots, and having them all land right back into his pockets with nary a miss. A very entertaining, spot-on satire of just what's wrong in Florida (and probably everywhere developers roam) today. A true, breezy read of a hit.

There's a method behind the madness.......2007-04-25

This is not necessarily a typical book by this author. Although it has the usual strange and demented characters, there's a serious purpose hidden under all the fun happenings. That is, the author laments the passing of the Florida ecosystem to developers, and he is particularly aiming at Disney, although the book doesn't come right out and say it. Even without keeping in mind the somber undertones of the book, the reader will enjoy the usual wild ride through the Florida environs with a strange, but eerily comforting, cast of characters.

Florida - a place to be missed.......2007-02-17

Hiaasen tears apart the bone and fibre of this state that dangles on the USA land mass in more ways than one. Funny, more than funny, sadly hilarious. Swamped in FLA charm.

The Serpent's Tongue: Prose, Poetry, and Art of the New Mexican Pueblos

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The Serpent's Tongue: Prose, Poetry, and Art of the New Mexican Pueblos
Paula Gunn Allen , Willa Cather , Frank Hamilton Cushing , Tony Hillerman , Oliver La Farge , Oliver Littlebird , Barry Lopez , Leslie Marmon Silko , Simon J. Ortiz , Joe S. Sando , Rina Swentzell , and Frank Waters
Manufacturer: Dutton Juvenile
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0525455140

Book Description

This peerless compendium, voted best nonfiction book of the year by the Mountains and Plains Booksellers' Association, pays tribute to one of North America's most enduring cultures, offering a rich sampling of works by noted Pueblo and non-native scholars, writers, and artists. Carefully selected from an exhaustive catalog of sources, the more than one hundred text selections include works of prose, poetry, autobiography, and historical narrative. Seventy-five unusual illustrations--from a rare drawing by D. H. Lawrence to striking portraits by photographer Edward S. Curtis and the brilliantly colorful paintings of Pablita Velarde and Helen Hardin--illuminate life in the pueblos, recording ceremonies, symbols, and spaces.

Lavishly designed in five colors, this eminently readable volume offers a story and mood for everyone and an authentic introduction to the cultural legacy of the ancient peoples of the Southwest. Fully annotated with bibliography, source notes, maps, and biographical entries, and with an inviting thematic organization for the casual reader, this beautiful book will find a permanent place in homes, libraries, and collections across the country.

Contributors include:

Paula Gunn Allen
Willa Cather
Frank Hamilton Cushing
Tony Hillerman
Oliver la Farge
Harold Littlebird
Barry Lopez
Simon J. Ortiz
Joe S. Sando.

The Babel of the Unconscious: Mother Tongue and Foreign Languages in the Psychoanalytic Dimension

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The Babel of the Unconscious: Mother Tongue and Foreign Languages in the Psychoanalytic Dimension
Jacqueline, M.D. Amati-Mehler , and Jorge Canestri
Manufacturer: Intl Universities Pr Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0823605302

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Classic. Essential. Marvelous!
A great alternative look at history of mankind

Our Marvelous Native Tongue
Robert Claiborne
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0812916352
Release Date: 1987-02-12

Customer Reviews:

Classic. Essential. Marvelous!.......2003-05-10

Where does English come from? How did it become the many-mouthed, thousand-eyed, saw-toothed, hulking gut-beast of expression that it is today? What is the real meaning of the phrase "Grand Tetons"?

In an extraordinary display of scholarly acumen and tireless gusto, Robert Claiborne gives us a complete history of the English language. And he makes it fun.

Starting 8,000 years ago with the Indo-Europeans, Claiborne traces the English tongue as it wriggles its way through the mouths of aboriginal Baltics, Roman traders, Latin monks, Dutch pirates, Norman knights, Italian poets, Arab alchemists, Spanish conquistadors, Native American victims, and much more. Hundreds of actual roots and actual words are used to vividly illustrate each developmental stage of our language.

Claiborne pulls from an impressively broad range of sources to supply his account. From literature, we see how Chaucer, Shakespeare, Johnson, Webster, and other titanic literary figures revolutionized our tongue. From history, we see how the Norman invasion of England nourished the language. From politics, we see how the English Revolution made English the tongue of the free.

The story of Pidjin English and the origins of American dialects is particularly engaging, as well as the surprisingly foolish reasons for those arbitrary rules that grammarians cling to.

Highly recommended for writers, word lovers, philologists--hey, even proctologists might want to give this fascinating book a try.

A great alternative look at history of mankind.......1998-11-30

An enjoyable read for both the language student as well as the student of history. My wife and I read this book 10-years ago. Since then, I have studied various European languages and most recently Turkish (we're now living in Izmir, Turkey). I picked this book up again to re-read it and now am enjoying it from a whole new persective. 10-years ago we ordered extra copies of this book for selected friends, and most especially, my father who studied journalism early in his life and has always been a great teacher to his children of English and its uses. I'm now ordering more copies again for my English-speaking Turkish friends (and a few Brits too). This book is even better the second time around.

How to Talk American: A Guide to Our Native Tongues

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A must for " exchange students"
Fun book
Savvy, irreverent, but accurate journey into slang-world
great fun . . .especially liked the "midwest" section

How to Talk American: A Guide to Our Native Tongues
James Marshall Crotty
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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How We Talk : American Regional English Today

ASIN: 0395780322

Amazon.com

Jim "the Mad Monk" Crotty has spent a dozen years on the road traveling around the United States, getting under the skin of the communities in order to discover what makes their wild hearts tick. The fruit of these labors is Monk: The Mobile Magazine, a singularly quirky quarterly publication, coproduced with co-Monk Michael Lane, which spotlights a different community in each issue. How to Talk American is the outgrowth of Monk's hilarious "How to Talk" column, and if you thought you knew how to speak American, well, fegedaboutit (New York), that's monkey (Kentucky). In addition to the lowdown on speaking like an Alaskan, Las Vegan, New Yorker, and Seattleite, Crotty gives up the verbal goods on copspeak, Deadheadian, diner lingo, ecobabble, gutter-punk, Hollywoodese, street slang, and trucker talk. And that's just the beginning. To whet your appetite, these words all mean "cool": crazy, cold-blooded, phat, tight, cuspy, total family kine, fierce, full on, hella, sick, raw, tonar, yar. And these mean "not cool at all": schwag, jurassic, skank. Or at least they did yesterday.

Book Description

For twelve years Jim Crotty has been traveling this great country in his roving Monkmobile (don't ask) and in the process has discovered how Americans really speak, from coast to coast and border to border - from Bible Belt Banter to Vegas Vernacular, from Redneck Rhetoric to New England Niceties: Things you need to know about Boston before you go there: Quahog (say co-hog) - oil-slickened red-tide clam, prized by Bostonians for its taste; Santa Fe semantics: Blue corn - sacred food, sold as chips; Seattle-speak: Partly sunny - partly cloudy Crotty's savvy and often hilarious region-by-region guide to the way we talk provides a dead-on (and sometimes too strange) indication of how we think, how we behave, and what we hold dear.

Customer Reviews:

A must for " exchange students".......2005-02-12

I bought this book when I had foreign exchange students. It was hard to explain:
1. " thank you for sharing": definition for I've heard enough...
2. "What I hear you saying": Definition: I ( host mom) don't really hear what you are saying. I hear how I think you ought to say it. A device to get the questioner ( exchange student) to speed along so the faciliator (me) can speak some more.
3. And then I bought it too.. cause I didn't know what the definition of a dork is ( a cool person)

Thanks, I needed that.

Fun book.......2000-11-01

I enjoyed reading all sections of this book, but especially the parts about the places I've been. It included phrases from my birthplace of Chicago that I didn't even realize the rest of the country doesn't use. For example, "gapers delay": the traffic jam caused by people slowing or stopping to stare at something, like an accident. My only complaint is that his description was too narrow. In Crotty's definition, a gapers delay is caused one particular billboard which I'm sure is gone by now. But believe me, the gaper's delay is still there somewhere.

Savvy, irreverent, but accurate journey into slang-world.......1998-09-11

"How to Talk American" is an irreverent but surprisingly accurate (at least based on my experience) guide to the local slang and terminology of various American cities, regions, and subcultures. Crotty's book delves deep into the lingo of places and people that the reader would not otherwise experience (no matter who that reader is). Perhaps the main value of this book, however, is its demonstration that, despite the rapid homogenization (or McDonaldization) of our society, there is still a rich supply of local terms, or words shared by a limited group of people with shared interests, and that these terms have not (yet) been appropriated by the larger culture. Surprisingly, these terms are for the most part actually interesting and funny, especially when viewed through the eyes of the roving and perceptive author. If this book has a weakness, it lies in the plot and character development. Wait--there is no plot and no character development--it's a guide to slang! OK, if this book has a weakness, it is that at times the author is overambitious and includes some terms better left out and fails to focus on a smaller and perhaps more representative sample. But that fault can be readily forgiven. It's a good, if not a quick, read, and it's absolutely indispensable for anyone who has more than a passing interest in the state of American language.

great fun . . .especially liked the "midwest" section.......1998-07-16

this compilation of phrases, slang, and witicisms really tickled me! Especially enjoyed the midwest section as I was born in Omaha, NB and raised (reared?) in Indiana and Iowa . . .fun!

Average customer rating:

Drifts, not as focused as the first book
A great book by a distinguished linguist and feminist author
Worthy sequel

The Judas Rose (Native Tongue 2)
Suzette Haden Elgin
Manufacturer: Feminist Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Earthsong (Native Tongue 3)
Native Tongue
The Slave and the Free (Books One and Two of the Holdfast Chronicles)
Peacetalk 101
Stargate SG-1 - Season 10

ASIN: 1558614036

Book Description

An instant cult classic, and groundbreaking forerunner to Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale. Native Tongue Trilogy revealed to its audiences a frightening future world where the women of Earth are once again property.

In Volume II of the trilogy, the women have at last decided to spread the language using the Roman Catholic church. But when a handful of priests discover the plot, they move to stamp it out with their own female agent, Sister Miriam Rose. But Sister Miriam has plans of her own. . . .

Customer Reviews:

Drifts, not as focused as the first book.......2003-09-28

A "sequel" to Native Tongue, the Judas Rose does not really follow very closely on the first book's theme, and worse, does not come to much of a conclusion. A lot of loose threads are left dangling, and don't look to the third book to pick them up again -- it's even worse.

This book also severely broke my suspension of disbelief. The basic premise is that aliens are so vastly superior to Earth civilization that mankind's self-esteem would be crushed if the general public found out how primitive and savage we are compared to other intelligent races. So crushed that our own civilization would fall apart. Umm.... huh? Yes, no doubt there would be consternation and panic if we learned that Earth was a pitiful backwater compared to alien civilizations, but it isn't as if humans have never had to deal with that concept before. Many primitive tribes were traumatized by contact with Europeans, but that was more because the Europeans were predatory colonists, rather than because the "barbarians" had their cultural self-esteem shattered by learning about gunpowder and machines and science and literature. The aliens in this book pity humans but have no desire to victimize them.

The whole idea of the public not being able to handle the truth seems based on Elgin's dominant theme -- that men are in charge, and men are almost universally strutting egotists whose fragile masculinity would be shattered if they learned they are NOT, in fact, masters of the universe.

Again, this is an interesting book, but I didn't take nearly as much away from it as I did from the first, and frankly, I found this book much more annoying.

A great book by a distinguished linguist and feminist author.......2000-09-26

Her is the premise of the book: Alien superior! It was only coincidence that every Alien civilization we encountered was so advanced beyond the civilizations of Earth that we looked like pathetic savages scrabbling in the dirt by comparison. And I know that in time we will begin to come upon worlds whose peoples are far behind or at best equal to ours. It is impossible for Earth to be the most backward inhabited planet in the known universe. However all of us at the top knew what would happen if the apparent skew toward Alien superiority were to become known to the Terran populations. That way lay hysteria and panic, or worse; that way lay the fate of the dinosaurs. The policy of total deception was implemented at the highest levels, with the fullest understanding that anyone showing the smallest sign of potential for betraying the situation would be killed at once; there would be no exceptions, not even in the White House. WHATEVER HAD TO BE DONE TO KEEP THE PEOPLE OF EARTH EROM KNOWING, IT WOULD BE DONE."

Worthy sequel.......2000-06-02

This is a worthy sequel to "Native Tongue". It is perhaps a little less innovative than the first volume, but carries on quite convincingly.

OUR MARVELOUS NATIVE TONGUE THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

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OUR MARVELOUS NATIVE TONGUE THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Manufacturer: Time Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H1ZOOO

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Fascinating speculative fiction
Don't like science fiction but ........
A very fun read!
Imaginative but dated, better social commentary than sci-fi
Great, but don't bother with the rest of the trilogy

Native Tongue
SUZETTE, HADEN ELGIN , and Suzette Haden Elgin
Manufacturer: The Feminist Press at CUNY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Judas Rose (Native Tongue 2)
Earthsong (Native Tongue 3)
Language and Gender: An Introduction
The Gate to Women's Country
Wanderground: Stories of the Hill Women

ASIN: 1558612467

Book Description

Called "fascinating" by the New York Times upon its first publication in 1984, Native Tongue won wide critical praise and cult status, and has often been compared to the futurist fiction of Margaret Atwood. Set in the twenty-second century, the novel tells of a world where women are once again property, denied civil rights and banned from public life. Earth's wealth depends on interplanetary commerce with alien races, and linguists --a small, clannish group of families --have become the ruling elite by controlling all interplanetary communication. Their women are used to breed perfect translators for all the galaxies' languages.

Nazareth Chornyak, the most talented linguist of the family, is exhausted by her constant work translating for trade organizations, supervising the children's language education, running the compound, and caring for the elderly men. She longs to retire to the Barren House, where women past childbearing age knit, chat, and wait to die. What Nazareth comes to discover is that a slow revolution is going on in the Barren Houses: there, word by word, women are creating a language of their own to free them from men's control.

"Native Tongue brings to life not only the possibility of a women's language, but a rationale for one,"-Village Voice

"Elgin takes up more than linguistics, of course-everything from religion to sexâ€¦the story is absolutely compelling."-Women's Review of Books

Suzette Haden Elgin is author of twelve science fiction novels and is widely know for her best-selling series The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense and for The Grandmother Principles. She is director of the Ozark Center for Language Studies and is professor emerita of linguistics at San Diego State University.

Susan Squier is Julia Brill professor of English and Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating speculative fiction.......2007-10-03

Basically, this is a speculative feminist science fiction novel based on linguistics. I've taken a bunch of linguistics classes and the book contains quite a lot of ideas taken almost directly from the field of modern linguistics. As such, if the reader isn't at least a little familiar with some of the terminology and concepts (ie: Universal Grammar, Language Acquisition, etc) parts of it may be confusing, although many of the concepts referred to are at least somewhat elaborated upon in the book. This isn't a fast-paced action scifi-novel, and as such may feel a bit slow if you go into it expecting such a book. It has more of a Margaret Atwood feel to it. In all, highly recommended.

Don't like science fiction but ...............2007-03-09

This was the first Science Fiction book that our book club read. It was an "OK" read but it sure made for some lively discussions at book club!

A very fun read!.......2004-02-18

I love science fiction, but I am very picky about it. This book was a well-written page turner from beginning to end. The characters are believable and well drawn. Each plot twist left me wondering what was going to happen next, the true definition of a good story. For anyone who doesn't think the world described in the book is likely, I laugh...especially today.

Women in the book devise a language of their own, over the course of many years, that the men are totally oblivious to, and it changes the entire nature of who they are and how they relate to men in a way the men are entirely unaware of. What a concept!

Many feminists have spent their lifetime finding words for concepts that men were totally and stubbornly oblivious to -- "rape" and "battered women" being the most obvious. Mary Daly is one of the most brilliant strategists in the study of the roots of the English language and how it diminishes women in and of itself. Learning about that process is incredibly empowering, and should not be taken lightly.

Elgin takes that concept one evolutionary step further, and in the process makes the step creative, enjoyable and very, very fun. I loved this book!

Imaginative but dated, better social commentary than sci-fi.......2003-09-28

I first read this book over 10 years ago. Even then I thought it was a little dated -- the author was clearly reacting against the Reagan era and extrapolating a hypothetical future where women have become chattel (albeit somewhat pampered chattel).

This is an "idea" book, and the ideas are fascinating. Laadan, the "women's tongue," (Elgin has actually created and published Laadan books), the power of communication, very alien aliens.. these are all interesting. If you are a linguist, a feminist, or someone who just likes far-out social speculation, this book will be interesting to you. It does have a certain hold on the imagination, such that I still remember it and think about it years later.

But as fiction, much less as science fiction, it leaves something to be desired. The entire premise, that the U.S. will become a sort of genteel Protestant patriarchal dictatorship, falls flat. (Some people may argue we are already heading in that direction, but I really can't see the repeal of the 19th Amendment and every man in the country becoming convinced that women have no more intellectual abilities than children.) Technology and space exploration is poorly explained, all the "sci-fi" bits are handwaved and thus there are some notable gaps in my suspension of disbelief. The aliens and the interstellar society exist as a backdrop for Elgin to explore her social views, which is fine if you are reading the book for social/feminist-linguistic theory, but will disappoint if you are reading the book for science fiction.

Most annoyingly, every single male character is one-dimensional. All the men are at best condescending egotists, at worst thugs. One is left with the impression that almost spontaneously, American society was taken over by a Protestant Taliban, and not one man ever questions the new social order. Aren't there ANY men who are not chauvinistic troglodytes, with egos so fragile that their world would fall apart if a woman ever demonstrated independence and competence in his presence? Not in this book, and not in many of Elgin's other books either.

I also agree with another reviewer; the first book in the Native Tongue trilogy is worth reading. The second book was mediocre and unfocused and didn't seem to come to any resolution. The third book, rather than picking up where the second book left off, did not tie up any of the loose ends from the first two books, and instead seems to be little more than a poorly edited collection of short stories that happen to be set in more or less the same universe.

Great, but don't bother with the rest of the trilogy.......2002-06-28

This is a great read, and finely crafted SF novel, and an excellent sociological reflection upon the state of the United States in the late 70s and 1980s. After finishing the book I wanted more, and unfortunately, I went and got it. The second two books are truly uninspiring - there is a reason they are out of print - with the third book being truly abysmal. Read Native Tongue, but don't go out of your way to find the final two books. In fact, go out of your way to avoid them.

Average customer rating:

Imaginative departure from "Native Tongue"
Feminist future fantasy about language altering thought

Earthsong (Native Tongue 3)
Suzette Haden Elgin
Manufacturer: Feminist Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Judas Rose (Native Tongue 2)
Native Tongue
Peacetalk 101
The Slave and the Free (Books One and Two of the Holdfast Chronicles)
The Grandmother Principles

ASIN: 1558614044

Book Description

In Earthsong, the trilogy's long-awaited finale, the Aliens have abandoned Earth, taking their technologies with them and plunging the planet into economic and ecological disaster. Devastated, the women decide to take their failed Laadan project back underground, desperately seeking guidance from their long-dead foremothers. The women discover an ingenious solution to the problem of human violence and seek to spread their knowledge-but has their final solution come too late?

Customer Reviews:

Imaginative departure from "Native Tongue".......2000-06-02

This is presented as the third volume of the "Native Tongue" trilogy. In a sense this is true, since it uses the same universe and is set at a later date than the first two volumes. In most respects it is not, since it departs from the main theme ("language sets the stage for perception") and the grand design started in the first two volumes and picks up other ideas.

This is much less a true sci fi novel than the first two volumes and it is even more tongue-in-cheek. If nothing else, this book is highly imaginative and a pleasure to read.

Feminist future fantasy about language altering thought.......1996-11-08

This is the third book in a series of three, and is clearly the inferior of it's predecesors. In Native Tongue and Judas Rose, Suzette Haden Elgin wrote provokatively about the role of language in a fictional future where woman are second class citizens. Earthsong simulataneously abandons the major subject of the previous two books (the emergence of a "woman's language", laadan) and at the same time will make absolutely no sense to people who haven't read the earlier books. Also, many of the characters are mere snapshots (introduced to give us a flavor of the range of women's viewpoints in this new society) and the lack of deep characterizations and fragmented narrative can be disconcering, particularly if you like your fantasy with clear connections and resolution. I don't mean to sound totally negative, for there are some thought-provoking ideas here- particularly a new way to solve the problem of human starvation. But these ideas stretch the boundries of scientific credibility. For all these reasons, I give Earthsong a 4.

Average customer rating:

Full of interesting trivia for lovers of languages
a collection of facts
Simplesmente Fantástico
The most fascinating book I've read.
WOW!

Native Tongues
Charles Berlitz
Manufacturer: Castle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Around the World with 80 Words: The 80 Key Words You Need to Communicate in 25 Languages

ASIN: 0785818278

Customer Reviews:

Full of interesting trivia for lovers of languages.......2007-03-11

"English was selected over German as the official language of the United States... by one vote."

"California is the name of the queen of the Amazons"

"The word 'mile' comes from the Latin 'mille', one thousand, referring to a thousand complete paces..."

For anyone interested in languages, especially, this book compiles a large amount of fascinating trivia - about 340 pages worth.

a collection of facts.......2006-02-24

This is a big collection of facts about different languages divided in 39 chapters like: How languages started; Alphabets; 1066 and the French invasion of English; Language incidents that changed history; Words of love and admiration; English vs American; What's in a name: places and peoples; The world's shortest phrasebook in the most languages (8 words and phrases in 26 languages).

The facts are really very different in type and length. Here's one of the shortest, just to illustrate how useless some of the facts are: "The Navaho word for 'train' means 'many wagons, no horse.'". The longest ones are half a page. One fact may, or may not be connected to the previous one. If you enjoy reading interesting facts that you probably won't remember for long, then you'll like this book, it really contains a lot of (useless) information in it's 300 pages.

Simplesmente Fantástico.......2004-06-26

Este é, sem dúvida, um dos melhores livros que eu já li, sendo ao mesmo tempo leve e profundo, sério e divertido, popular e acadêmico. Recomendo para todos aqueles que gostem de ler um bom livro, daqueles que não conseguimos largar até chegar a última página. Indispensável a qualque biblioteca.

The most fascinating book I've read........1999-07-19

One thousand words is not enough to review this book. Conversely the book defines one thousand words...and more. If you are interested in words and their origins, peoples names and what the names mean, you will find this book difficult to put down. Read it, if you can find it.

WOW!.......1999-06-28

This is an incredible book! I study languages free-lance and this book is very helpful! It is in a non-technical style of language that makes it especially easy to use. The quantity as well as quality of facts is staggering! DOWNSIDE: It's out of print. Try an antiquarian book search to find it. That's where I got mine!

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