Secret Language: Codes, Tricks, Spies, Thieves, and Symbols

ISBN-13: 9780199691623 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 288 str.

Barry J Blake

Opis

This title is about language designed to mean what it does not seem to mean. It explores the history and uses of the slangs and argots of schools and trades such as Polari and the languages of ancient cults.

Recenzje

The subtitle is both accurate and cryptic, and provides only a hint of just how intriguing and diverting a book this isPart of the fascination of the book comes from noticing how often these modes of concealment resemble one another, or bleed togetherIt is good to have a book that gives you something to ponder without being ponderous itself. And it can be recommended in particular to anyone disposed to find language itself, as such, a source of pleasure.

O autorze

Barry Blake taught at La Trobe University for many years. He is an expert on all aspects of language and a well known authority on Australian Aboriginal languages. His most recent book, All About Language was published by Oxford University Press in 2008.