One of my favourite books on the English language is called Highly Irregular.
I think I’ve written about this before, but it has come up again because one of our small grandsons is in second class at primary school, and he is finding that every time he is taught a spelling rule, he then has to learn lots of exceptions to the rule.
That’s just the way the English language is.
I keep saying to my wife, ‘I have a book on my shelves that explains all of this. It is called Highly Irregular.’
And it is directly relevant to the language that puzzled seven and eight-year-olds are struggling with in our schools.
It explains why ‘tough’, ‘through’ and ‘dough’ don’t rhyme; why there are two ways of saying the letter ‘G’; why so many verbs are irregular; why the ‘teen’ numerals don’t begin until 13 (instead of at 11 and 12); where the H comes from in ‘ghost’; why we pronounce ‘colonel’ the way we do.
And so on and on.
Highly Irregular was published by Oxford University Press in 2021.
The author is Arika Okrent (yes, she does have a highly irregular name!)—a linguist and a writer about language.
There are so many puzzles this book covers—such as why Y is sometimes a vowel and sometimes a consonant; why we can be ‘clean-shaven’ but not ‘clean-shaved’; and why ‘of’ is pronounced with a V but spelled with an F.
Have you ever wondered why we can go slow, but fall fast asleep?
Where the ‘egg’ comes from when we egg someone on?
Why there is a P in ‘receipt’ a B in ‘doubt’ and an L in ‘salmon’?
I noticed recently that the distinguished chef Marcus Waring pronounces the L in ‘almond’—which the rest of don’t. Why not?
I think this is a wonderful and enlightening book.
So, if your local library doesn’t have a copy of Highly Irregular ask them to get a copy in for you.
Or, if like me, you want a copy on your shelves, it is a relatively recent publication and should be available at Booktopia or Amazon.
(If not, every second-hand book in the world is available at ABE Books.)
And what are we telling out grandson about all this?
Sorry, but it’s back to rote learning—you just have to memorize these Highly Irregular words!
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The latest issue of Australian Geographic is now at newsagents -- with a big beaked kookaburra on the front cover, and inside my two small columns on 'Ozwords' and 'Placenames.'
BOOKS:
* My latest book is called Pray Like This. To look at prayer I do what I do in these Ozword columns: I go through the most famous prayer in the world (The Lord’s Prayer, also known as the Our Father) and unpack it word by word—each chapter being a short word-study on a key word in that prayer. There is a total of 21 words studies in all. To find out more, here’s a link to the publisher’s website (where you can buy a copy if you wish): Pray Like This – matthiasmedia.com.au
* My book is Sherlock Holmes: 5-Minute Mysteries -- containing 50 new stories I have written about the great detective. You can find it on Amazon. Just go to Amazon and type in Sherlock Holmes: 5-Minute Mysteries in the search panel. Or use this link: h Amazon.com.au : Sherlock Holmes 5-Minute Mysteries Kel Richards
* My book "Defending the Gospel" is now in a second, fully revised, edition. You can find it here: Defending the Gospel – matthiasmedia.com.au
* If you're looking for my recent book "Flash Jim" you'll find it here -- Flash Jim, The astonis
hing story of the convict fraudster who wrote Australia's first dictionary by Kel Richards | 9781460759769 | Booktopia
* You can find all Kel's books currently in print here -- Booktopia Search Results for 'kel richards'. We sell books, hardback, paperback, audio, CDs.
* And also here -- Amazon.com.au : Kel Richards
* And you'll find more here -- Search: 4 results found for "Kel Richards" – matthiasmedia.com.au
* Many of Kel's out of print books can be found at ABE Books -- Kel Richards - AbeBooks explaining words explain the term
BY THE WAY...
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
The liveliest part of this website is usually the Q and A page -- be sure to check it out from time to time.
