Amglish in, Like, Ten Easy Lessons: A Celebration of the New World Lingo

摘要

Rowse provides a half-serious, half-hilarious look at increasingly informal American English, which he calls Amglish. But Rowse is to Amglish as Stephen Colbert is to conservative politics: tongue planted firmly in cheek. John Doherty's spot-on illustrations make Amglish even funnier (picture Tina Fey and Mark Twain sharing a smoke and a joke). Rowse claims that English, like all languages, undergoes a constant revision through word adoption, invention, and adulteration. Our American ancestors created tongue-twisters like "hornswoggle" (to cheat), "rambunctious" (unruly), and "conbobberation" (ruckus). Today's language pioneers have given us "digerati" (the computer-empowered), "greenwash" (ecologically friendly), and "carbon footprint" (impact on the planet).