Audible会員プラン登録で、20万以上の対象タイトルが聴き放題。
-
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue
- The Untold History of English
- ナレーター: John McWhorter
- 再生時間: 5 時間 22 分
カートのアイテムが多すぎます
カートに追加できませんでした。
ウィッシュリストに追加できませんでした。
ほしい物リストの削除に失敗しました。
ポッドキャストのフォローに失敗しました
ポッドキャストのフォロー解除に失敗しました
Audible会員プラン 無料体験
あらすじ・解説
Covering such turning points as the little-known Celtic and Welsh influences on English, the impact of the Viking raids and the Norman Conquest, and the Germanic invasions that started it all during the fifth century A.D., John McWhorter narrates this colorful evolution with vigor.
Drawing on revolutionary genetic and linguistic research, as well as a cache of remarkable trivia about the origins of English words and syntax patterns, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue ultimately demonstrates the arbitrary, maddening nature of English - and its ironic simplicity due to its role as a streamlined lingua franca during the early formation of Britain. This is the book that language aficionados worldwide have been waiting for. (And no, it's not a sin to end a sentence with a preposition.)
こちらもおすすめ
-
The Story of Human Language
- 著者: John McWhorter, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: John McWhorter
- 再生時間: 18 時間 15 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Language defines us as a species, placing humans head and shoulders above even the most proficient animal communicators. But it also beguiles us with its endless mysteries, allowing us to ponder why different languages emerged, why there isn't simply a single language, how languages change over time and whether that's good or bad, and how languages die out and become extinct.
-
-
言語接触や英語の語源、変化を学べる書
- 投稿者: 伊藤さとみHome 日付: 2021/12/09
著者: John McWhorter, 、その他
-
A Little History of the World
- 著者: E. H. Gombrich
- ナレーター: Ralph Cosham
- 再生時間: 9 時間 11 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
-
-
Essential world history
- 投稿者: シンプルイングリッシュの村上博昭 日付: 2022/11/26
著者: E. H. Gombrich
-
The Foundations of Western Civilization
- 著者: Thomas F. X. Noble, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: Thomas F. X. Noble
- 再生時間: 24 時間 51 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
What is Western Civilization? According to Professor Noble, it is "much more than human and political geography," encompassing myriad forms of political and institutional structures - from monarchies to participatory republics - and its own traditions of political discourse. It involves choices about who gets to participate in any given society and the ways in which societies have resolved the tension between individual self-interest and the common good.
著者: Thomas F. X. Noble, 、その他
-
The World as I See It
- 著者: Albert Einstein
- ナレーター: Pete Cross
- 再生時間: 3 時間 40 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Including letters, speeches, articles, and essays written before 1935, this collection offers a complete portrait of Einstein as a humanitarian and as a human being trying to make sense of the world changing around him.
著者: Albert Einstein
-
The Essential Dogen
- Writings of the Great Zen Master
- 著者: Kazuaki Tanahashi - editor, Peter Levitt - editor
- ナレーター: Brian Nishii
- 再生時間: 5 時間 43 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
This is the first book to offer the great master's incisive wisdom in short selections taken from the whole range of his voluminous works. The pithy and powerful readings, arranged according to theme, provide a perfect introduction to Dogen - and inspire spiritual practice in people of all traditions.
著者: Kazuaki Tanahashi - editor, 、その他
-
A History of Japan
- Revised Edition
- 著者: R. H. P. Mason, J. G. Caiger
- ナレーター: Derek Perkins
- 再生時間: 13 時間 7 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
A classic of Japanese history, this audiobook is the preeminent work on the history of Japan. Newly revised and updated, A History of Japan is a single-volume complete history of the nation of Japan. Starting in ancient Japan during its early pre-history period, A History of Japan covers every important aspect of history and culture through feudal Japan to the post-Cold War period and collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s. Recent findings shed additional light on the origins of Japanese civilization and the birth of Japanese culture.
著者: R. H. P. Mason, 、その他
-
The Story of Human Language
- 著者: John McWhorter, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: John McWhorter
- 再生時間: 18 時間 15 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Language defines us as a species, placing humans head and shoulders above even the most proficient animal communicators. But it also beguiles us with its endless mysteries, allowing us to ponder why different languages emerged, why there isn't simply a single language, how languages change over time and whether that's good or bad, and how languages die out and become extinct.
-
-
言語接触や英語の語源、変化を学べる書
- 投稿者: 伊藤さとみHome 日付: 2021/12/09
著者: John McWhorter, 、その他
-
A Little History of the World
- 著者: E. H. Gombrich
- ナレーター: Ralph Cosham
- 再生時間: 9 時間 11 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
-
-
Essential world history
- 投稿者: シンプルイングリッシュの村上博昭 日付: 2022/11/26
著者: E. H. Gombrich
-
The Foundations of Western Civilization
- 著者: Thomas F. X. Noble, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: Thomas F. X. Noble
- 再生時間: 24 時間 51 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
What is Western Civilization? According to Professor Noble, it is "much more than human and political geography," encompassing myriad forms of political and institutional structures - from monarchies to participatory republics - and its own traditions of political discourse. It involves choices about who gets to participate in any given society and the ways in which societies have resolved the tension between individual self-interest and the common good.
著者: Thomas F. X. Noble, 、その他
-
The World as I See It
- 著者: Albert Einstein
- ナレーター: Pete Cross
- 再生時間: 3 時間 40 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Including letters, speeches, articles, and essays written before 1935, this collection offers a complete portrait of Einstein as a humanitarian and as a human being trying to make sense of the world changing around him.
著者: Albert Einstein
-
The Essential Dogen
- Writings of the Great Zen Master
- 著者: Kazuaki Tanahashi - editor, Peter Levitt - editor
- ナレーター: Brian Nishii
- 再生時間: 5 時間 43 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
This is the first book to offer the great master's incisive wisdom in short selections taken from the whole range of his voluminous works. The pithy and powerful readings, arranged according to theme, provide a perfect introduction to Dogen - and inspire spiritual practice in people of all traditions.
著者: Kazuaki Tanahashi - editor, 、その他
-
A History of Japan
- Revised Edition
- 著者: R. H. P. Mason, J. G. Caiger
- ナレーター: Derek Perkins
- 再生時間: 13 時間 7 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
A classic of Japanese history, this audiobook is the preeminent work on the history of Japan. Newly revised and updated, A History of Japan is a single-volume complete history of the nation of Japan. Starting in ancient Japan during its early pre-history period, A History of Japan covers every important aspect of history and culture through feudal Japan to the post-Cold War period and collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s. Recent findings shed additional light on the origins of Japanese civilization and the birth of Japanese culture.
著者: R. H. P. Mason, 、その他
-
Idioms in English, Volume 1
- 著者: Kathy L. Hans
- ナレーター: Kathy L. Hans
- 再生時間: 52 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
An idiom is a group of words with a special meaning of its own that is not clear from the meanings of the individual words. Idioms such as "think out of the box" and "a long shot" are used extensively in English in e-mail, newspapers, and conversations. When you don't understand idioms, you can feel left out of a conversation or miss the point of a story. This audiobook focuses on 100 frequently used idioms.
-
-
リスニングスキルの確認に有用
- 投稿者: わずー 日付: 2024/10/31
著者: Kathy L. Hans
-
1066: The Year That Changed Everything
- 著者: Jennifer Paxton, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: Jennifer Paxton
- 再生時間: 3 時間
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
With this exciting and historically rich six-lecture course, experience for yourself the drama of this dynamic year in medieval history, centered on the landmark Norman Conquest. Taking you from the shores of Scandinavia and France to the battlefields of the English countryside, these lectures will plunge you into a world of fierce Viking warriors, powerful noble families, politically charged marriages, tense succession crises, epic military invasions, and much more.
著者: Jennifer Paxton, 、その他
-
English Grammar Boot Camp
- 著者: Anne Curzan, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: Anne Curzan
- 再生時間: 12 時間 26 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Grammar! For many of us, the word triggers memories of finger-wagging schoolteachers, and of wrestling with the ambiguous and complicated rules of using formal language. But what is grammar? In fact, it's the integral basis of how we speak and write. As such, a refined awareness of grammar opens a world of possibilities for both your pleasure in the English language and your skill in using it, in both speech and the written word.
-
-
Great overview
- 投稿者: シンプルイングリッシュの村上博昭 日付: 2022/10/23
著者: Anne Curzan, 、その他
-
The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis
- 著者: Louis Markos, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: Louis Markos
- 再生時間: 6 時間 5 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
What can we still learn from C.S. Lewis? Find out in these 12 insightful lectures that cover the author's spiritual autobiography, novels, and his scholarly writings that reflect on pain and grief, love and friendship, prophecy and miracles, and education and mythology.
著者: Louis Markos, 、その他
-
The Brain-Based Guide to Communicating Better
- 著者: Professor Allison Friederichs Atkison, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: Professor Allison Friederichs Atkison
- 再生時間: 3 時間 3 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Professor Allison Friederichs will walk you through six lessons that can help you better know your own mind, and thus understand and transform your own methods of communication. You will learn how your brain acquires, processes, and retains information. You can then take that knowledge and apply it whenever you need to convey something to others, with the best possible results. While you may not have any control over how other people communicate, developing your own methods of connection and conversation can have a positive impact on both your personal and professional life.
著者: Professor Allison Friederichs Atkison, 、その他
-
The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition
- 著者: Daniel N. Robinson, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: Daniel N. Robinson
- 再生時間: 30 時間 11 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Grasp the important ideas that have served as the backbone of philosophy across the ages with this extraordinary 60-lecture series. This is your opportunity to explore the enormous range of philosophical perspectives and ponder the most important and enduring of human questions-without spending your life poring over dense philosophical texts.
著者: Daniel N. Robinson, 、その他
-
The New Testament
- 著者: Bart D. Ehrman, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: Bart D. Ehrman
- 再生時間: 12 時間 27 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Whether taken as a book of faith or a cultural artifact, the New Testament is among the most significant writings the world has ever known, its web of meaning relied upon by virtually every major writer in the last 2,000 years. Yet the New Testament is not only one of Western civilization’s most believed books, but also one of its most widely disputed, often maligned, and least clearly understood, with a vast number of people unaware of how it was written and transmitted.
著者: Bart D. Ehrman, 、その他
-
Learn Better
- Mastering the Skills for Success in Life, Business, and School, or, How to Become an Expert in Just About Anything
- 著者: Ulrich Boser
- ナレーター: Tom Parks
- 再生時間: 9 時間 14 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
For centuries, experts have argued that learning was about memorizing information: You're supposed to study facts, dates, and details, burn them into your memory, and then apply that knowledge at opportune times. But this approach to learning isn't nearly enough for the world that we live in today, and in Learn Better journalist and education researcher Ulrich Boser demonstrates that how we learn can matter just as much as what we learn.
-
-
Helpful reminders
- 投稿者: Mina 日付: 2023/09/01
著者: Ulrich Boser
-
How to Say It: Words That Make a Difference
- 著者: Allison Friederichs Atkison, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: Allison Friederichs Atkison
- 再生時間: 4 時間 44 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Words. We use them all the time, every day, mostly without giving them much thought at all. We take for granted that they’re here at our disposal whenever we need them. But if you’ve ever wished you could communicate more effectively, words are the place to start. It’s incumbent upon you to choose the best words to accomplish your goals, because how you choose to communicate influences—well, everything! The power of communication shapes our professional goals, our relationships, and our lives—so the words we choose to use carry a great deal of power.
著者: Allison Friederichs Atkison, 、その他
-
Linguistics
- A Very Short Introduction
- 著者: P.H. Matthews
- ナレーター: James Conlan
- 再生時間: 3 時間 28 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Linguistics falls in the gap between arts and science, on the edges of which the most fascinating discoveries and the most important problems are found. Rather than following the conventional organization of many contemporary introductions to the subject, the author of this stimulating guide begins his discussion with the oldest, "arts" end of the subject and moves chronologically through to the newest research - the "science" aspects.
著者: P.H. Matthews
-
Ancient Greece, Second Edition
- From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times
- 著者: Thomas R. Martin
- ナレーター: John Lescault
- 再生時間: 12 時間 59 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
In this compact yet comprehensive history of ancient Greece, Thomas R. Martin brings alive Greek civilization from its Stone Age roots to the fourth century BC. Focusing on the development of the Greek city-state and the society, culture, and architecture of Athens in its Golden Age, Martin integrates political, military, social, and cultural history in a book that will appeal to students and general audiences alike. Now in its second edition, this classic work now features updates throughout.
著者: Thomas R. Martin
-
Buddhism for Dummies, 2nd Edition
- 著者: Jonathan Landaw, Stephan Bodian, Gudrun Buhnemann
- ナレーター: Sean Runnette
- 再生時間: 13 時間 5 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Buddhism, one of the world's most widely practiced religions, is a fascinating yet complex eastern religion that is rapidly spreading throughout western civilization. What does it mean to be a Buddhist? What are the fundamental beliefs and history behind this religion? Buddhism for Dummies explores these questions and more in this updated guide to Buddhist culture. You'll gain an understanding of the origins of this ancient practice and how they're currently applied to everyday life.
著者: Jonathan Landaw, 、その他
-
The Conquest of Happiness
- 著者: Bertrand Russell
- ナレーター: Chris Lutkin
- 再生時間: 6 時間 58 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
This metaphysical self-help classic instills happiness within and urges individuals to pursue a content life without sin, boredom, or contempt. Written decades ago with post-war depression in mind, this text has transcended time and continues to give applicable advice for modern-day individuals.
-
-
受験英語の到達点
- 投稿者: Amazon カスタマー 日付: 2020/07/01
著者: Bertrand Russell
-
How to Be Better at Almost Everything
- Learn Anything Quickly, Stack Your Skills, Dominate
- 著者: Pat Flynn
- ナレーター: Pat Flynn
- 再生時間: 4 時間 23 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
In How to Be Better at Almost Everything, best-selling author, fitness expert, entrepreneur, and professional business coach Pat Flynn shares the secrets to learning (almost) every skill, from marketing to music to martial arts to writing and relationships, teaching how to combine interests to achieve greatness in any field. His direct, “Generalist” approach to self-improvement gives you the tools you need to make your mark on the world and make buckets of money - without losing your soul.
著者: Pat Flynn
-
誰でもなれる!英語脳に変わる本
- 著者: 世界英語研究会
- ナレーター: 世界英語研究会
- 再生時間: 1 時間 7 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
ベストセラーとなった『1日1分で英語脳』に待望の続編が登場!!言いたいことを、もっとスムーズに英語で伝えたいとムズムズしている方にカリスマ講師がやさしく、楽しく、教えます!
-
-
速度差
- 投稿者: お兄様 日付: 2024/10/27
著者: 世界英語研究会
-
The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World
- 著者: Robert Garland, The Great Courses
- ナレーター: Robert Garland
- 再生時間: 24 時間 28 分
- オリジナル版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Look beyond the abstract dates and figures, kings and queens, and battles and wars that make up so many historical accounts. Over the course of 48 richly detailed lectures, Professor Garland covers the breadth and depth of human history from the perspective of the so-called ordinary people, from its earliest beginnings through the Middle Ages.
著者: Robert Garland, 、その他
-
The Power of Now
- A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
- 著者: Eckhart Tolle
- ナレーター: Eckhart Tolle
- 再生時間: 7 時間 37 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
It’s no wonder that The Power of Now has sold over 16 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 foreign languages. Much more than simple principles and platitudes, the book takes readers on an inspiring spiritual journey to find their true and deepest self and reach the ultimate in personal growth and spirituality: the discovery of truth and light. In the first chapter, Tolle introduces listeners to enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind.
-
-
I need to listen to this again
- 投稿者: Amazon カスタマー 日付: 2023/07/07
著者: Eckhart Tolle
-
Miracle at Midway
- 著者: Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein
- ナレーター: Qarie Marshall
- 再生時間: 17 時間 9 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
Six months after Pearl Harbor, the seemingly invincible Imperial Japanese Navy prepared a decisive blow against the United States. After sweeping through Asia and the South Pacific, Japan's military targeted the tiny atoll of Midway, an ideal launching pad for the invasion of Hawaii and beyond. But the United States Navy was waiting for them. Thanks to cutting-edge code-breaking technology, tactical daring, and a huge stroke of luck, the Americans under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz dealt the Japanese navy its first major defeat of the war.
著者: Gordon W. Prange, 、その他
-
Jurassic Park
- A Novel
- 著者: Michael Crichton
- ナレーター: Scott Brick
- 再生時間: 15 時間 10 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them - for a price.
-
-
The purest of all Jurassic Park
- 投稿者: Bryant Bulla 日付: 2023/09/30
著者: Michael Crichton
-
Philosophy of Science (2nd Edition)
- A Very Short Introduction
- 著者: Samir Okasha
- ナレーター: Liam Gerrard
- 再生時間: 4 時間 28 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
How much faith should we place in what scientists tell us? Is it possible for scientific knowledge to be fully "objective"? What, really, can be defined as science? In the second edition of this very short introduction, Samir Okasha explores the main themes and theories of contemporary philosophy of science and investigates fascinating, challenging questions such as these.
著者: Samir Okasha
-
Mathematics
- A Very Short Introduction
- 著者: Timothy Gowers
- ナレーター: Craig Jessen
- 再生時間: 5 時間 21 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
The aim of this book is to explain, carefully but not technically, the differences between advanced, research-level mathematics and the sort of mathematics we learn at school. The most fundamental differences are philosophical, and listeners of this book will emerge with a clearer understanding of paradoxical-sounding concepts such as infinity, curved space, and imaginary numbers. The first few chapters are about general aspects of mathematical thought.
著者: Timothy Gowers
-
No Greater Love
- 著者: Mother Teresa
- ナレーター: Lorna Raver, Dan Woren
- 再生時間: 4 時間 31 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
No Greater Love is the essential wisdom of Mother Teresa - the most accessible and inspirational collection of her teachings ever published. This definitive volume features Mother Teresa on love, prayer, giving, service, poverty, forgiveness, Jesus, and more. No Greater Love is a passionate testament to Mother Teresa's deep hope and abiding faith in God and the world. It will bring readers into the heart of this remarkable woman, showing Mother Teresa's revolutionary vision of Christianity in its graceful, poetic simplicity.
著者: Mother Teresa
-
Business Strategy
- The Economist
- 著者: Jeremy Kourdi
- ナレーター: Christopher Oxford
- 再生時間: 9 時間 41 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
A business's overall strategy may be set at board level, but many people throughout the organisation will be involved in deciding that strategy and implementing it - making decisions that are strategic in nature. On these decisions hangs the future of the business: how successful it is, even whether it is successful. Yet business history is full of strategic decisions, both big and small, that were weak, poorly conceived and consequently disastrous.
著者: Jeremy Kourdi
-
とにかく使える韓国語ー日常会話からマニアック表現まで
- 著者: 情報センター出版局:編
- ナレーター: 伊藤 あゆ美
- 再生時間: 4 時間 26 分
- 完全版
-
総合評価
-
ナレーション
-
ストーリー
シリーズ510万部突破の大ベストセラー『旅の指さし会話帳』から「とにかく使える」韓国語全35シーン2300フレーズを徹底収録!
-
-
通勤途中に聴いてます。
- 投稿者: tamatama 日付: 2022/08/18
著者: 情報センター出版局:編
批評家のレビュー
"McWhorter's iconoclastic impulses and refreshing enthusiasm makes this worth a look for anyone with a love for the language." (Publishers Weekly)
"McWhorter’s energetic, brash delivery of his own spirited and iconoclastic text will appeal to everyone who appreciates the range and caliber of today’s audio production. In some ways, audio is superior to printed text in portraying tone, attitude, values, and in this case, a discussion whose theme is the sound and grammar of words." (AudioFile magazine)
Audible制作部より
There is something about the English language. Belonging to the Proto-Germanic language group, English has a structure that is oddly, weirdly different from other Germanic languages. In Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English, John McWhorter has achieved nothing less than a new understanding of the historic formation of the English language — in McWhorter’s words “a revised conception of what English is and why”. The linguist and public intellectual McWhorter accomplished this scholarly feat outside the tight restrictor box of academic publications. He did it with a popular book and thoroughly convincing arguments framed in richly entertaining, informal colloquial language.
The audiobook production of Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue takes McWhorter’s transformation of scholarship to a new level. The book is about the spoken word and how and why the English language’s structure — that is the syntax, and which linguists term the “grammar” — changed through time. McWhorter tells the story the way it should be told: in spoken English by a master of the subject of how the languages under study sounded. The author has a remarkable, animated narrative voice and his delivery has an engaging and captivating personal touch. He is a great teacher with a world-class set of pipes, who clearly has developed a special relationship with studio microphones.
McWhorter’s intent is “to fill in a chapter of The History of English that has not been presented to the lay public, partly because it is a chapter even scholars of English’s development have rarely engaged at length”. The changes of English under study are from spoken Old English before 787 C.E. and the Viking invasions and the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the Middle English of Chaucer’s time. (With Chaucer we are a hop, skip, and a jump away from the English we easily recognize today.) The influences that altered the language, in McWhorter’s new formulation, include how, beginning in 787 C.E., the Viking invaders “beat up the English language in the same way that we beat up foreign languages in class rooms”, and thus shed some of the English grammar, and the native British Celtic Welsh and Cornish “mixed their native grammars with English grammar”. After the Norman Invasion, French was the language of a relatively small ruling class and was thus the written language. But with the Hundreds Years’ War between England and France, English again became the ruling language, and the changes that had been created in spoken English found their way into written Middle English.
Listening to McWhorter articulate his points with his extraordinarily expressive, polemically powerful voice, and cutting through and continually upending the scrabble board of flabby etymological presumptions of the established view — it is like nothing you’ve ever heard. The audio edition of this groundbreaking work, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue – an otherwise scholarly study twice transformed into a popular book and then into the audiobook that gives such impressive expressive voice to the changes of the English language — is a milestone in audiobook production. —David Chasey