Slanguage classes from a master! The Life of Slang

The Life of Slang by Julie Coleman is the type of book I adore, because it covers a subject I am passionate about, the use of language.

A quote from the book: "Slang is a subject that provokes strong emotions. If you use slang, you run the risk of being judged crass, uneducated, stupid, or hopelessly out of date, but the rewards are great: used correctly, slang will easy your entry into the social circles you want to mix in, increase your attractiveness to the opposite sex, and even save your life."

In this very interesting and  linguistically important book Julie Coleman (who is a professor of English Language at the University of Leicester) traces the development of English slang words from the earliest know records to some pretty modern examples by way of the Tweets of today.

It examines how slang is used, why it is used and where it is used. It looks at how slang developed amongst the English-speaking populations of the world.

As part of her research tools Julie Coleman has gone through the records of the Old Bailey and searched through the electronic archives of newspapers which, she points out, have provided a wealth of new information and facts about historical slang. Blogs and other online sites and tweets are a very valuable source of information for studying contemporary slang.

The Life of Slang does not make the mistake of some academic works, it does not assume that the reader is an old hand in the field. It covers slang from the Old English period down through the ages to the modern world.

It's an entertaining and informative read (though based on impeccable scholarly sources) and will teach you exactly what people are saying. You will know the "word on the street and on the tweet".  It will teach you some new and interesting words. Some of which are best not used in polite society! Unless you really want ot, of course!

The use of slang can be a jolly good show, make you seem the cat's pyjamas, which might make someone ROFL!

The book will be published on 22 March in hardback by the Oxford University Press at a modest £14.99 or  $27.95. Although it should be available for a discount through the That's Books online bookshop.

1066 And All That: New Phrase Book Rewrites English

A former teacher of English has written a phrase book with a difference: In Hastings, 1066 - Words We'd Wield if We'd Won, David Cowley has used an extensive knowledge of the language to show a modern English stripped of Norman-French, with its original Anglo-Saxon words intact.

The results are a mix of the startlingly different and surprisingly familiar, as these examples show:

May I ask a question? - May I ask a frayn?
Think positively! - Think winly!
Such impatience! - Such unthild!
With little modesty - With little shamefastness
Making progress - Making forthship
Be discrete - Be sidely
A duty to be done - An oughting to be done
A precious heritage - A dearworth yearve
The court believed you were innocent of the accusation - The hove believed you to be unsinny of the wraying
Peace agreement - Frith thwearing

Cowley sees fun and serious sides to the work: "Hastings meant the English elite and official use of Old English were swept aside by the Normans. French words ousted many English ones, so we've ended up speaking and even thinking differently. There's a fun element in pretending we won at Hastings, but the alternative sayings can really make you think it's a pity we lost that way of expressing things."

Hastings, 1066 - Words We'd Wield if We'd Won, Bright Pen Books, 51 pages, RRP £3.99
ISBN 978-0-7552-1376-4


http://www.authorsonline.co.uk/book/1125/Hastings+1066+-+Words+We'd+Wield+If+We'd+Won/

(EDITOR: This will make an absolutely first rate stocking filler, this Christmas)