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Synopsis
Slang is the language of pop culture, low culture, street culture, underground movements and secret societies; depending on your point of view, it is a badge of honour, a sign of identity or a dangerous assault on the values of polite society.
Over several centuries and across international borders, VULGAR TONGUES is the story of how the English language of Shakespeare's day fragmented and twisted into all kinds of shapes, as people like pickpockets, beggars, sailors, musicians, gangsters, whores, politicians, gypsies, soldiers, gays and lesbians, policemen, rappers, cockneys, biker gangs and circus folk seized the King's or Queen's English by the throat and took it to places it would probably regret in the morning. New & Used
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What Reviewers Are Saying
Max Decharne's engaging book Vulgar Tongues is a spectacular feat, collating information from a mind-boggling range of sources - from jazz lyrics to dime novels, from 18th century brothel directories to 1960s criminal autobiographies. -- Lynne Truss * New Statesman * A fantastic book -- Robert Elms * BBC Radio London * I'm loving Max Decharne's alternative history of English slang, Vulgar Tongues, and plan to be using a lot of wonderful new swearwords! -- Christopher Fowler A detailed delight ... The entertainment to be found within this etymology is legion ... Luckily for us, Decharne is a master of the manifold, who wields a light touch over a heavy amount of research ... Decharne's work ably demonstrates that the creation of slang is something hardwired in us, the need to mock suppression being the mother of its invention - one brilliant
argument for never keeping a civil tongue. -- Cathi Unsworth * Fortean Times * Though he may not be a professional linguist, he has an infectious enthusiasm for the peculiarities of English vocabulary... The strength of Mr. Decharne's account is its zest * Wall Street Journal * English slang is a field rich for tillage, as Max Decharne proves in Vulgar Tongues, a triumph of philological research and mordant social commentary...[it] never loses sight of slang's deeper cultural role * Washington Post * Decharne, a musician and songwriter, has written extensively on music, crime and noir, and his great gift is to connect his encyclopedic knowledge of more recent slang to that of the past. His mind is a trivia-trap of the first order, and the book is a bracing historical tour of the lexicons of sex, prostitution, crime, alcohol, drugs, popular music and military slang. -- Peter Sokolowski * New York Times * [Decharne's] great gift is to connect his encyclopedic knowledge of more recent slang to that of the past. His mind is a trivia trap of the first order, and the book is a bracing historical tour of the lexicons of sex, prostitution, crime, alcohol, drugs, popular music and military slang -- Peter Sokolowski * New York Times * This amusing book ... contains a wealth of entertaining detail. -- Jane Shilling * Daily Mail *
argument for never keeping a civil tongue. -- Cathi Unsworth * Fortean Times * Though he may not be a professional