- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Penguin (5 Jun 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0141036443
- ISBN-13: 978-0141036441
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 728,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Biting the Wax Tadpole
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Product Description
Product Description
What can Johnny Cash’s lyrics teach us about the little-known Tangut dialect? Is ‘tabernacle’ really a swear word in Quebecois? Which language has absolutely no verbs? What is Earth’s politest insult? And what is biting the wax tadpole actually a translation of?*
Prepare for a hilarious rollercoaster ride through hundreds of well-known, obscure, difficult, dead and even made-up languages. Elizabeth Little has waded through innumerable verb tables in every available mood and tense, untangled up to eighteen cases of noun, and wrestled with all kinds of complicated adjective, participles and glottal stops to bring you the best and most bizarre quirks of the ways people communicate all around the globe.
From the language that has no different word for ‘blue’ or ‘green’, to why Icelanders need official permission to name their children, from what makes a Korean TV hit to what people might think you’re saying if you order eggs in Spain, Biting the Wax Tadpole will ensure you’re never lost for words again.
*Coca-Cola, would you believe it?
About the Author
Elizabeth Little is a writer and editor living in New York City. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times. This is her first book.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
This most definately does not live up to the Blurb (I found this book in India by the way). As the biting the wax tadpole thing is a myth!
I would state that the first 1/3 of the book is interesting but it really gets slow and far too in depth in the middle and the comedy that starts so well in the first section appears to be nearly completely absent in the last 2/3rds.
I would state that the first 1/3 of the book is interesting but it really gets slow and far too in depth in the middle and the comedy that starts so well in the first section appears to be nearly completely absent in the last 2/3rds.
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