Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-254) and index.
Contents:
What the hell, English? -- The colonel of truth: what is the deal with the word colonel? -- Fairweather vowels: why is y a sometimes vowel? -- Hey large spender: why do we order a large drink and not a big one? -- Crazy English: why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway? -- What the hell is with what the hell? -- Blame the barbarians -- Thoroughly tough, right? Why don't tough, through, and dough rhyme? -- Getting and giving the general gist: why are there two ways to say the letter g? -- Egging them on: what is the egg doing in egg on? -- I eated all the cookies: why do we have irregular verbs? -- It goes by so fastly: why do we move slowly but not fastly? and step softly but not hardly? -- Elegantly clad and stylishly shod: why is it clean-shaven and not clean-shaved? -- Six of one, half a twoteen of the other: why is it eleven, twelve instead of oneteen, twoteen? -- Woe is we: why is it woe is me, not I am woe? -- Blame the French -- A sizeable, substantial, extensive vocabulary: why are there so many synonyms? -- Don't inSULT me with that INsult: are there noun-verb pairs that only differ by stress? -- Without fail: why is it without fail and not failure or failing? -- Ask the poets laureate: why is it sum total and not total sum? -- Of unrequited lof: why isn't of spelled with a v? -- Blame the printing press -- Uninvited ghuests: why are ghost, ghastly, and ghoul spelled with gh? -- Gnat, knot, comb, wrist: why do we have silent consonants? -- Coulda, shoulda, woulda: why is there a silent l? -- Peek, peak, piece, people: why are there so many ways to write the 'ee' sound? -- Crew, grew, stew, new...sew? why don't sew and new rhyme? -- Blame the snobs -- Get receipts on those extra letters: why is there a p in receipt, an l in salmon, and a b in doubt? -- Asthma, phlegm, and diarrhea: why all the extra letters? -- The data are in on the octopi: what's the deal with Latin plurals? -- Too much discretion: keeping discreet and discrete discrete, discreetly -- Pick a color/colour: can't we get this standardized/standardised? -- Blame ourselves -- Couth, kempt, and ruthful: why have some words lost their better halves? -- If it ain't broke, don't scramble it: why is there no egg in eggplant? -- Proving the rule: how can an exception prove a rule? -- How dare you say "how try you"!: why dare isn't like the other verbs -- Release the meese: why isn't the plural of moose meese? -- Why do noses run and feet smell?: a corny joke with a serious answer -- Negative fixation: why can you say "this won't take long" but not "this will take long"? -- Abbreviation deflation: why is there an r in Mrs.? -- How it comes to be: how come we say how come? -- Phrasal verbs, let's go over them: but don't try to "go them over" (you can look them over though) -- Terrible and terrific, awful and awesome: how does the same root get opposite meanings? -- Literally messed up: how did literally get to mean figuratively? -- That's enough now, English.
Summary:
"Perhaps you're reading a book and stop to puzzle over absurd spelling rules, or you hear someone talking and get stuck on an expression, or your kid quizzes you on homework. 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. 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"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.