Review: Myths, Lies and Half-Truths of Language Usage

Myths, Lies and Half-Truths of Language Usage by John McWhorter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another excellent book by John McWhorter. This one concentration on the English language, past, present and future. 

Here are some of my notes:

So apparently the Angles, Saxons and Jutes weren't the first Germanic people to cross over to England. At that time there were settlements of Frisians already living in the Southeast. I had no idea. Although now that I think about it it makes sense since English is in fact closer to Frisian than any of the other low German dialects. 

He mentions an Italian dialect called "Monese" which I cannot for the life of me find any trace of. If anyone knows where this could be from please let me know. The closest I could get would be Cremonese (maybe Creo-Monese and drop the Creo?) or possibly a dialect from Monno, although that would be the dialetto Camuno (a type of Lombard) I guess. 

You shouldn't say "Ain't I" if you're educated. But you shouldn't say "Amn't I", so what do you say? "Aren't I?". Except that is non-sensical (Are not I?)

I want to read more about Robert Lowthe and William Cobbett, and their prescriptive recommendations for English usage. 

View all my reviews