“ —The Washington Post A truly original book in every sense of the word, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows poetically defines emotions that we all feel but don’t have the words to express—until now. Have you ever wondered about the lives of each person you pass on the street, realizing that everyone is the main character in their own story, each living a life as vivid and complex as your own? That feeling has a name: “sonder.” Or maybe you’ve watched a thunderstorm roll in and felt a primal hunger for disaster, hoping it would shake up your life. That’s called “lachesism.” Or you were looking through old photos and felt a pang of nostalgia for a time you’ve never actually experienced. That’s “anemoia.” If you’ve never heard of these terms before, that’s because they didn’t exist until John Koenig set out to fill the gaps in our language of emotion. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows “creates beautiful new words that we need but do not yet have,” says John Green, bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars. By turns poignant, relatable, and mind-bending, the definitions include whimsical etymologies drawn from languages around the world, interspersed with otherworldly collages and lyrical essays that explore forgotten corners of the human condition—from “astrophe,” the longing to explore beyond the planet Earth, to “zenosyne,” the sense that time keeps getting faster. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is for anyone who enjoys a shift in perspective, pondering the ineffable feelings that make up our lives. With a gorgeous package and beautiful illustrations throughout, this is the perfect gift for creatives, word nerds, and human beings everywhere.

    You'll never be lost for words again.

    Discovered in a pile of rubble in 1799, this slab of stone proved to be the key to unlocking a lost language that baffled scholars for centuries. Carved in ancient Egypt, the Rosetta Stone carried the same message in different languages—in Greek using Greek letters, and in Egyptian using picture-writing called hieroglyphs. Until its discovery, no one in the world knew how to read the hieroglyphs that covered every temple and text and statue in Egypt. Dominating the world for thirty centuries, ancient Egypt was the mightiest empire the world had ever known, yet everything about it—the pyramids, mummies, the Sphinx—was shrouded in mystery. Whoever was able to decipher the Rosetta Stone would solve that mystery and fling open a door that had been locked for two thousand years. Two brilliant rivals set out to win that prize. One was English, the other French, at a time when England and France were enemies and the world’s two great superpowers. Written “like a thriller” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), The Writing of the Gods chronicles this high-stakes intellectual race in which the winner would win glory for both himself and his nation. A riveting portrait of empires both ancient and modern, this is an unparalleled look at the culture and history of ancient Egypt, “and also a lesson…in what the human mind does when faced with a puzzle” (The New Yorker).

    Written in fifty semi-discrete entries, Fifty Sounds is a personal dictionary of the Japanese language that draws together a variety of cultural reflections – from conformity and being an outsider, to the gendering of Japanese society, and attitudes towards food and the cult of ‘deliciousness’ – alongside probing insights into the transformative powers of language-learning. Candid, humane, witty and wise, Fifty Sounds is remarkable work that takes a transparent look at language itself, lifting the lid on the quietly revolutionary act of learning, speaking, and living in another language.

    She prefers the warm oranges and pinks of Spanish. As she prepares for class at a new school, she knows she's going to have to learn--and she would rather not! Her first day is uncomfortable, until she discovers there's more than one way to communicate with friends. This is a universal story about feeling new and making new friends.

    Delving into the fascinating early history of South Asia, this original book reveals how migration, both external and internal, has shaped all Indians from ancient times. Through a first-of-its-kind and incisive study of languages, such as the story of early Sanskrit, the rise of Urdu, language formation in the North-east, it presents the astounding argument that all Indians are of mixed origins. It explores the surprising rise of English after Independence and how it may be endangering India’s native languages.

    Used throughout much of Britain over a thousand years ago, it is rich with words that haven’t changed (like 'word'), others that are unrecognisable (such as 'neorxnawang', or paradise) and some that are curious even in translation ('gafol-fisc' literally means tax-fish).THE WORDHORD gathers these gems into a glorious trove of the strange, familiar and unexpectedly apt, and through them illuminates the lives, beliefs and habits of the earliest English speakers. We discover a world where choking on a bit of bread might prove your guilt, where fiend-ship was as likely as friend-ship, and you might grow up to be a laughter-smith.These are the magical roots of the language you’re reading right now: you’ll never look at – or speak – English in the same way again.

    But whether you use it just well enough to get your daily business done, or you're an expert with a red pen who never omits a comma or misplaces a modifier, you must have noticed that there are some things about this language that are just weird.Perhaps you're reading a book and stop to puzzle over absurd spelling rules (Why are there so many ways to say '-gh'?), or you hear someone talking and get stuck on an expression (Why do we say How dare you but not How try you?), or your kid quizzes you on homework (Why is it eleven and twelve instead of oneteen and twoteen?). Suddenly you ask yourself, Wait, why do we do it this way? You think about it, try to explain it, and keep running into walls. It doesn't conform to logic. It doesn't work the way you'd expect it to. There doesn't seem to be any rule at all.There might not be a logical explanation, but there will be an explanation, and this book is here to help.In Highly Irregular, Arika Okrent answers these questions and many more. Along the way she tells the story of the many influences--from invading French armies to stubborn Flemish printers--that made our language the way it is today. Both an entertaining send-up of linguistic oddities and a deeply researched history of English, Highly Irregular is essential reading for anyone who has paused to wonder about our marvelous mess of a language.

    

    

    As with the previous books in the series, Comparrotives features surprising touch-and-feel novelty elements throughout—making the comparatives concept easy and fun to learn.

    This vital anthology opens a dialogue about this unique language diversity and probes the importance of language in our identity and the ways in which it shapes us.In this collection of deeply personal essays, twenty-six writers explore their connection with language, accents, and vocabularies, and contend with the ways they can be used as both bridge and weapon. Some explore the way power and privilege affect language learning, especially the shame and exclusion often felt by non-native English speakers in a white, settler, colonial nation. Some confront the pain of losing a mother tongue or an ancestral language along with the loss of community and highlight the empowerment that comes with reclamation. Others celebrate the joys of learning a new language and the power of connection. All underscore how language can offer transformation and collective healing to various communities.With contributions by: Kamal Al-Solaylee, Jenny Heijun Wills, Karen McBride, Melissa Bull, Leonarda Carranza, Adam Pottle, Kai Cheng Thom, Sigal Samuel, Rebecca Fisseha, Logan Broeckaert, Taslim Jaffer, Ashley Hynd, Jagtar Kaul Atwal, Téa Mutonji, Rowan McCandless, Sahar Golshan, Camila Justino, Amanda Leduc, Ayelet Tsabari, Carrianne Leung, Janet Hong, Danny Ramadan, Sediqa de Meijer, Jónína Kirton, and Eufemia Fantetti.

    Demonstrating the elements of screenwriting inside the format engages readers (and writers) in an accessible way, reminding them that story is at the heart of the form. Award-winning screenwriting instructor Kat Montagu crafted the tale of two feisty young witches cursed by a ghost of a dead screenwriter. When he steals their car to make it to L.A., the chase is on and only the arcane knowledge of screenplay formatting can help them."This genius learn-as-you-laugh guide teaches you script formatting in a way that's pain-free, memorable, and logical. In my nearly 30-year career, I have had to learn formatting on the street, copying the examples I happened to come across, and this would've been a great help to me. In fact, even now, reading it makes certain things clear that I've never fully understood. I highly recommend this book!"- Jane Espenson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica)

    But understanding even the basics about the Septuagint is helpful for academics and laypeople alike.In this book, scholars Gregory R. Lanier and William A. Ross examine what the Septuagint is and why Christians should care about it. By distilling the complexity surrounding the origin (who and where), translation philosophy, and transmission (history), the authors address not only how the church throughout history has viewed this text, but also its continued value for the study of the Old Testament and New Testament. Here is a book that serves as a springboard for anyone interested in knowing more about the Septuagint and its relationship to the Bible.

    Plague, extinctions, wildfires, and loneliness grip us every together even as they affirm our connection with the living world. What are the stories that we want to seed in these mythological times? How can we acknowledge the past, be with the world we are living in now, and imagine possible futures? Through the themes of language, food, trees, and apocalypse, this volume asks these deeper questions while honoring the interwoven nature of ecology, culture, and spirituality.

    An inclusive picture book for grandparents everywhere.In every country around the world are grandpas short and tall.Though they go by different names, we love them one and all.From brilliant new talents Ashleigh Barton and Martina Heiduczek, comes a charming and heart-warming book that celebrates the many different ways we say grandpa. What Do You Call Your Grandpa? is a love letter to grandfathers and families from every corner of the globe.

    It also offers clear and original instruction on craft elements at the forefront of today’s emerging forms in creative nonfiction: from the short-short, to the braided form, to the hermit crab essay. An acknowledged expert in these forms, Brenda Miller gives writers practical advice on how to sustain and invigorate their writing practice, while also encouraging readers to explore their own writing lives. “Brenda Miller writes so beautifully in these lyrical and ‘braided’ essays—personal meditations that take us deep into the miracle of writing itself. Her eye is always alert, her ear wonderfully tuned to the nuances of perception. The art of the essay is alive and well in her hands.”  —Jay Parini, author of Borges and Me

    English can be beastly. With all its soundalike and lookalike words, its peculiar punctuation rules, its ridiculous spelling inconsistencies, and those teeny-tiny apostrophes that love landing in all the wrong places, writing can get downright intimidating.HAVE NO FEAR! Unflubbify Your Writing is here! Packed with fun examples, this book shows you how to:Keep spellings straight: capital and capitol, stationary and stationery, forego and forgo, etc.Avoid comma splices and grocer's apostrophes.Pluralize last names.Understand when to use fewer instead of less.Use i.e. and e.g. correctly.Know when-and when not-to capitalize mom and dad.These little lessons are amusing, irreverent, memorable, and nothing like any English class you've ever attended. Before long, you'll feel more confident in your writing and notice that you're enjoying it more than ever.Get one book for yourself and a few extras for:Your retired-English-teacher mother.Your nephew who's heading to college.Your friend who wants to write her memoir.That coworker who always says antidote when he means anecdote.Please note that occasionally, this book leans a little racy, so it's probably most appropriate for teenagers and grownups.

    Get a better understanding of Korean sentence structures and confidently extend your sentences! This book is designed for beginner and intermediate Korean learners that want to practice extending Korean sentences related to everyday activities.

    For more than three millennia the cultures of Mesoamerica flourished, yielding the first cities of the Western Hemisphere and developing writing systems that could rival those of the East in their creativity and efficiency. The Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs reigned over one of the greatest imperial civilizations the Americas had ever seen, and until now their intricate and visually stunning hieroglyphs have been overlooked in the story of writing. In this innovative volume Gordon Whittaker provides the reader with a step-by-step, illustrated guide to reading Aztec glyphs, as well as the historical and linguistic context needed to appreciate and understand this fascinating writing system. He also tells the story of how this enigmatic language has been deciphered and gives a tour through Aztec history as recorded in the richly illustrated hieroglyphic codices. This groundbreaking guide is essential reading for anyone interested in the Aztecs, hieroglyphs, or ancient languages.

    That needs to change, but how can we make it happen? A Brief History of Stigma explores the past and present of stigma to give a solid basis to examine strategies to reduce stigma and critically evaluate their effectiveness. It also incorporates the author's experiences as a former mental health nurse living with a chronic mental illness.The book is divided into three parts. Part I explores what exactly stigma is, including relevant sociological theory and common stereotypes. Part II looks at some of the contexts in which stigma can occur, including the media and health care. Part III explores different stigma reduction strategies and what the research has to say about their effectiveness. You'll likely be surprised to learn how ineffective certain commonly used strategies are when it comes to changing public attitudes.This book is for anyone who's interested in understanding stigma and making the world a better place for people with mental illness. Together, we can create positive change!

    Who is a Muslim? destabilizes traditional constructions of postcolonial literary histories through the specific example of Urdu by suggesting that this North-India vernacular, far from secular or progressive, has been shaped as the authority designate around the intertwined questions of piety, national identity, and citizenship.

    In this brilliant new book, he digs beneath the surface of familiar place names, peeling back the layers of meaning behind them to reveal stories about the nature of the land of Erin and the people who walked it before us.Travel the highways, byways and boreens of Ireland with John and become absorbed in the place names such as 'The Land of Robins', 'Patrick's Bed', 'The Eagles Nest', 'Hidden Treasure' and 'The Valley of the Crazy'. All hold clues to help uncover our past and make sense of that place we call home, feeding both mind and soul along the way.That Place We Call Home is an absorbing non-fiction debut from one of Ireland's broadcasting national treasures.

    It's the ultimate Spanish lesson for kids! It includes:- Beautifully illustrated scenes that teach and test five words at a time. New vocabulary is practiced again at the end of each week in two pages of exercises. - Clever flaps on the jacket that cover the scene so your child can practice what they have just learned. - Uses the effective rote-learning method to teach new vocabulary. - Teaches a range of nouns and verbs that are useful in everyday life. Audio is available online and via a handy app to help with pronunciation.This unique Spanish teaching guide contains everything your child needs to acquire a firm grasp of the Spanish language in a fun and interactive way! Each week, 20 new words are presented over four days, and on the fifth day, your child can practice the words they have just learned. This will help them build up a vocabulary of more than 1,000 Spanish words over the course of a year!From animals and sports to colors and plants, Spanish for Everyone Junior teaches a mix of nouns and verbs through stunning illustrations with each new word clearly labeled. This encourages young learners to memorize the words before covering them with the cleverly designed flaps and testing their new knowledge. Accompanying audio means that children are also able to practice their Spanish pronunciation as many times as they want.More titles in the series to exploreThe colorful, clear and comprehensive 5 Words a Day series from DK lays the foundations for your child's journey in learning a foreign language, at school or home. Look out for other workbooks in the series! Help your child learn, practice and understand 1,000 French words in French for Everyone Junior: 5 Words a Day.

    It covers everything from Australian bush humour to America gone berserk; from Don Bradman to Oscar Wilde; from Animal Farm to the Australian parliament. Wherever Watson turns his incisive gaze, the results are as illuminating as they are enjoyable.Artfully arranged, Watsonia showcases the many sides of Don Watson: historian, speechwriter, commentator, humourist, nature writer and biographer. It also features several previously unpublished lectures and a wide-ranging introduction by the author. This comprehensive anthology – replete with wit, wisdom and diverse pleasures – is essential reading.

    With Everyday Grammar Made Easy, confidently apply perfect grammar usage by learning:Correct verb agreementsAppropriate pronoun useCommon grammar pitfallsCommon spelling mistakesAnd moreBegin with a quick review of basic grammar concepts, then take a deeper dive into various parts of speech and the underlying principles that guide how the different grammar parts work together, and, finally, explore common grammar and spelling pitfalls, complete with right and wrong examples. Turn to the back of the book for a glossary of grammar terms, verb guides, and useful grammar resources. With an encouraging tone to support you as you learn, sidebars to highlight important points and answer common questions, and helpful tables throughout, impeccable grammar is within your reach. Build your grammar skills and confidence, and develop a passion for learning more! Get a quick review of everything you forgot you knew with the Everyday Learning series from Wellfleet Press. Need a refresher course in topics like grammar and math? Then let these handy reference books be your sidekicks on your journey to higher learning. You’ll learn about timeless global topics, as well as the thought leaders responsible for some of the greatest contributions in the worlds of science, art, and more. Packed with useful information, these portable books are perfect for commuters who want to jump-start their day with useful and fun facts. With the Everyday Learning series, you’ll be an expert in any field in no time.  Other titles in this series include: Everyday Economics Made Easy,  Everyday Mathematics Made Easy, Everyday Philosophy Made Easy, and Everyday Spanish Made Easy.

    Johannes Gutenberg is credited with printing the first books in Europe with moveable type in the fifteenth century, but many different European printers and publishers went on to find innovative solutions to replicate the appearance of manuscript books in print and improve on them throughout the Renaissance. The illustrated examples in Typographic Firsts originate in those early decades, bringing into focus the influences and innovations that shaped the printed book and established a Western typographic canon. From the practical challenges of polychromatic printing and sheet music printing to the techniques for illustrating books with woodcuts and producing books for children to the design of the first fonts, these stories chart the invention of the printed book, the world’s first means of mass communication. Also covering title pages, maps, printing in gold, and printing in color, this book shows how a mixture of happenstance and brilliant technological innovation came together to form the typographic and design conventions of the book.

    This book introduces readers to the field of theolinguistics, the study of religious language. Investigating the ways in which people talk to and about God, about the sacred and about religion itself, it considers why people make certain linguistic choices and what they accomplish.Introducing the key methods required for examining religious language, Valerie Hobbs acquaints readers with the most common and important theolinguistic features and their functions. Using critical corpus-assisted discourse analysis with a focus on archaic and other lexical features, metaphor, agency and intertextuality, she examines religious language in context. Highlighting its use in both expected locations, such as modern-day prayer and politics, and unexpected locations including advertising, sport, healthcare and news media, Hobbs analyses the shifting and porous linguistic boundaries between the religious and the secular. With discussion questions and further readings for each chapter, as well as a companion website featuring suggested answers to the reflection tasks, this is the ideal introduction to the study of religious language.

    Neither of us viable distractions for our mothers, neither of us salve, much less salvation, from their losses."In the winter of 1936, the year the Spanish Civil War erupts in Seville, Vargas McPherson’s grandfather trembles against the cemetery wall in front of a firing squad. Her grandmother holds her dying first born daughter. Rations are once again cut. And into this profoundly censured grief, Vargas McPherson’s mother is born. Silenced through shame, cultural tradition, and Spain’s official Pact of Forgetting, her family has unknowingly bequeathed these overwhelming and unnamed tragedies they could not carry themselves.Each of us carry untold stories from before we were born and in Vargas McPherson’s luminous memoir, she seeks to reclaim and name her family’s secret history. Traveling to Seville, Vargas McPherson reimagines her family’s lives during the brutality of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. There she uncovers layers of religious mysticism, class struggle, and the catastrophic losses uncannily reflected in the names of her family. Unearthing each of the names, she embraces and holds space for the pain endured by her grandmother and mother and arrives at her own transformational truth, releasing her inheritance of grief.A sweeping epic, rich with sensual and palpable prose, Inheriting Our Names is a searingly poignant and transcendent memoir of family, war, and transgenerational grief.

    Cloistered in pubs and gloomy sitting rooms, London's young writers and artists faced being sent to the front, trading their paintbrushes and pens for the weapons of war. In WRITING IN THE DARK, Will Loxley conjures up this brooding world and tells the story of the defiant magazine Horizon, which sprung up against the odds.Interweaving the personal histories of the magazine's leaders - Cyril Connolly, Stephen Spender and John Lehmann, with their friends and contemporaries Virginia Woolf, George Orwell and Dylan Thomas, as well as many more names both familiar and not - Will brings us into these writers' homes and into the little offices at 6 Lansdowne Terrace. WRITING IN THE DARK captures the literary life of WWII, fusing the exhausted melancholy in the aftermath of the Blitz with changes in the writers' own lives, as they moved from city to countryside, from youth to middle age.

    Featuring definitions, this picture book of collective nouns will grow your vocabulary and expand your understanding. Companion title to A Loveliness of Ladybugs, winner of The National Parenting Center Seal of Approval.

    Without these symbols, it would be impossible to convey meaning—our words would run in endless unbroken lines of letters and numbers. These marks, which have their origins in the earliest written communications, have evolved over many hundreds of years.Hyphens & Hashtags presents the histories of these stalwart symbols, revealing the long road many have taken on their way to general usage. In the age of digital communication, some symbols have gained additional meanings. The obscure pound sign has transformed into the hashtag, an essential component of social media. The colon now serves double duty as the eyes of the smiley-face emoticon. Alongside the historical roots of these tools, this book also considers ever-evolving modern usage and uncovers those symbols which have now fallen out of fashion. Hyphens & Hashtags casts a well-deserved spotlight on these deceptively simple marks, whose handy knack for conveying meaning in simple shorthand can marshal our sentences, clarify a calculation, or add some much-needed emotion to our online interactions.

    This book looks at the unique ways different languages express common ideas like “too many cooks spoil the broth” and getting stuck “between a rock and a hard place,” as well as unique sayings about cats, beards, dancing, and much, much more. With over 330 illustrated phrases from Vietnam to Venezuela, A World of Wisdom is a fun and funny guide to all the phrases you might ever need!

    Immigration laws have developed to reinforce a dichotomy between those viewed as voluntary, often economically motivated, migrants who can be legitimately excluded by potential host states, and those viewed as forced, often politically motivated, refugees who should be let in. In Crossing, Rebecca Hamlin argues against advocacy positions that cling to this distinction. Everything we know about people who decide to move suggests that border crossing is far more complicated than any binary, or even a continuum, can encompass. Drawing on cases of various border crises across Europe, North America, South America, and the Middle East, Hamlin outlines major inconsistencies and faulty assumptions on which the binary relies. The migrant/refugee binary is not just an innocuous shorthand--indeed, its power stems from the way in which it is painted as apolitical. In truth, the binary is a dangerous legal fiction, politically constructed with the ultimate goal of making harsh border control measures more ethically palatable to the public. This book is a challenge to all those invested in the rights and study of migrants to move toward more equitable advocacy for all border crossers.

    Ordinary men and women in Russia and all over the world soon transformed Esperanto into a global movement. Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia traces the history and legacy of this effort: from Esperanto's roots in the social turmoil of the pre-revolutionary Pale of Settlement; to its links to socialist internationalism and Comintern bids for world revolution; and, finally, to the demise of the Soviet Esperanto movement in the increasingly xenophobic Stalinist 1930s. In doing so, this book reveals how Esperanto – and global language politics more broadly – shaped revolutionary and early Soviet Russia.Based on extensive archival materials, Brigid O'Keeffe's book provides the first in-depth exploration of Esperanto at grassroots level and sheds new light on a hitherto overlooked area of Russian history. As such, Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia will be of immense value to both historians of modern Russia and scholars of internationalism, transnational networks, and sociolinguistics.

    By early adulthood she spoke Czech rarely and badly, and when her father died unexpectedly, she lost not only a beloved parent but also her firmest point of connection to her native language. As Sedivy realized, more is at stake here than the loss of language: there is also the loss of identity.Language is an important part of adaptation to a new culture, and immigrants everywhere face pressure to assimilate. Recognizing this tension, Sedivy set out to understand the science of language loss and the potential for renewal. In Memory Speaks, she takes on the psychological and social world of multilingualism, exploring the human brain's capacity to learn--and forget--languages at various stages of life. But while studies of multilingual experience provide resources for the teaching and preservation of languages, Sedivy finds that the challenges facing multilingual people are largely political. Countering the widespread view that linguistic pluralism splinters loyalties and communities, Sedivy argues that the struggle to remain connected to an ancestral language and culture is a site of common ground, as people from all backgrounds can recognize the crucial role of language in forming a sense of self.Distinctive and timely, Memory Speaks combines a rich body of psychological research with a moving story at once personal and universally resonant. As citizens debate the merits of bilingual education, as the world's less dominant languages are driven to extinction, and as many people confront the pain of language loss, this is badly needed wisdom.

    Then there's these two, who are called Bill and Bruce... and one of them is definitely a very silly goose!A hilarious animal rhyming story by best-selling children's book creator, Scott Stuart.

    

    Join Jackson Crawford, a translator of Old Norse, for a rousing introduction to the original stories, characters, and themes of Norse mythology in these 24 lectures. Packed with gods, anti-gods, magical figures, human heroes, religious practices, and literary devices, this course lays bare the reasons for our enduring fascination with these undeniably dramatic tales. It also connects the dots to Icelandic sagas of human heroes and to the culture and worldview of the Viking peoples. You’ll spend time in the company of an incredible pantheon of characters, including Thor, who wasn’t necessarily the god of thunder we think of him as, and Freyja, commander of the Valkyries (more a job with special perks than a species of creatures). You’ll also enjoy spirited retellings of stories where the first members of humankind are molded by the gods from two pieces of driftwood; Odin travels to Hel to dig up a dead witch and interrogate her about what his son’s premonitions of his own death means; and multiple generations of a marshy district in Iceland must deal with the ravages of an “again-walker” (akin to a zombie).With his expertise, Dr. Crawford will deepen your acquaintance with these sources, and leave you with plenty to remember in the eerie tales and timeless wisdom of the Norse gods and heroes.