The world in so many words
Subtitle: a country-by-country tour of words that have shaped our language
By: Allan Metcalf.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 298
Subjects: English language -- Foreign words and phrases.; Languages in contact -- English-speaking countries.; English language -- Foreign elements.; English language -- Etymology.
Description: "In this book, Metcalf, a lifelong student of the English language, takes us on a tour of the world's languages that have contributed words to our own. From each language Metcalf selects and examines a representative word that we have accepted as one of our own and then reports on the culture that produced it. The result is a linguistic tour that demonstrates how English is a world language in more ways than one."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. xv-xvii) and indexes.