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GORDON PARSONS recommends an entertaining account of the years between Germany’s defeat in WWI and Hitler’s seizure of power
How to tell your cwm from your ghoti
Lingo: A Language Spotter’s Guide to Europe, by Gaston Dorren (Profile Books, £12.99)
MIGUEL YOSHIDA explains the evolution and influence of the Cuban Casa De Las Americas in joining culture to the revolutionary struggle
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
ALEX HALL treads warily through a messy, dialectical struggle fought in the mundane machinery of driving licences, criminal law, and birth registries
MICHAL BONCZA, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Atlas of Disappearance, Love Me Tender, Bouchra, and This Tempting Madness
Flitting between myth and the modern world, Medusa is determined to steer clear of human affairs. When her resolve crumbles, the result is petrifying in every sense
I love this book. It’s witty and informative, with a wealth of engaging comments on all things language-related on our continent.
Take Ludovit Stur, linguistic hero of the Slovaks, whose poems every citizen of that country can recite by heart: “Writing poetry was what public figures did in those days, much like appearing on television today,” he says of the literary past. Or, for “extreme athletes of linguistics,” there’s a section where the challenge of languages such as Faroese comes under scrutiny.
In following Gaston Dorren’s peregrinations through “lingo,” it’s handy to have a thorough knowledge of at least some part of the subject matter for an indication as to its general accuracy.
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GORDON PARSONS is enthralled by an erudite and entertaining account of where the language we speak came from