Book description
What can Johnny Cash s lyrics teach us about the little-known Tangut
dialect? Is tabernacle really a swear word in Quebecois? Which
language has absolutely no verbs? What is Earth s politest insult? And
what is biting the wax tadpole actually a translation of?*
Prepare for a hilarious rollercoaster ride through hundreds of
well-known, obscure, difficult, dead and even made-up languages.
Elizabeth Little has waded through innumerable verb tables in every
available mood and tense, untangled up to eighteen cases of noun, and
wrestled with all kinds of complicated adjective, participles and
glottal stops to bring you the best and most bizarre quirks of the
ways people communicate all around the globe.
From the language that has no different word for blue or green ,
to why Icelanders need official permission to name their children,
from what makes a Korean TV hit to what people might think you re
saying if you order eggs in Spain, Biting the Wax Tadpole will
ensure you re never lost for words again.
*Coca-Cola, would you believe it?
Elizabeth Little is a writer and editor living in New York City. Her
writing has appeared in
The New York Times
. This is her first book.
