Did you know that when you call someone a "pal" you're using a word derived from Romany, the gypsy tongue (phal, or brother)? Or that "cosmonaut" has its origins in ancient Greek? Remnants of the past live on in our words, grammar, and pronunciation. This is the story of language--how it succeeds or fails, and why it develops the way it does. * A completely redesigned edition--with newly drawn maps and discussions of the most current linguistic issues (including "politically correct" and technological speech). * Over 1,000 examples illustrate how specific words changed through time. * Covers Sanskrit; Indo-Aryan; Basque; Greek; Celtic; Latin and the Romance languages; Germanic (including English); Slavonic; Baltic tongues; "outsider" languages, like Magyar and Finnish; and Europe's national languages. * Includes over 140 photographs and special boxed sections. Whether you're interested in Romany or Romanian, English from Texas or Italian from Tuscany--you'll find the words that link them here! 200 pages (all in color), 7 1/4 x 9 5/8. NEW IN PAPERBACK

Author Biography

Victor Stevenson has spent his entire career working with words - as an English teacher, writer, journalist, editor, and contributor to encyclopedias and reference books on music, travel and exploration. His career has taken him to almost every country where Indo European languages are spoken.