Birding English
Exploring the History of a Language Through 50 Birds
Will be published approx. on 2. June 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
266 pages
978-1-68597-069-7 (ISBN)
Description
What do words like unkindness, haggard, asparagus, jizz, and the singular they have to do with birds? Quite a lot, actually. From Old English roots and Shakespearean idioms to Victorian slang and modern online lingo, Birding English charts a dynamic course through English's past, present, and future by admiring the plumage of falcons, the songs of sparrows, and the flight of ducks. With each of his fifty mini essays, Jeremy Withers uses birds as a point of entry into a key moment in the development of English: its origins in the Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Germanic languages, the influence of writers like Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare, the creation of English's first dictionaries and grammar books, and the arrival of rhyming slang and portmanteaus. Ideal for word nerds and bird nerds alike, this book will enchant anyone who's ever been captivated by the song of a bird or the song of a word.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Iowa
United States
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 to 99 years
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
367 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68597-069-7 (9781685970697)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jeremy Withers is associate professor of English at Iowa State University. He is author of Futuristic Cars and Space Bicycles: Contesting the Road in American Science Fiction. Withers lives in Ames, Iowa.