Come for the myth-busting, stay for the lighthearted introduction to linguistics. David Shariatmadari ably demonstrates that there are plenty of fascinating things to learn about language without indulging in sensationalist headlines. Recommended for both language fans and anyone who enjoys learning about the hidden patterns in everyday life -- GRETCHEN MCCULLOCH, author of BECAUSE INTERNET Completely fascinating and eye-opening. David Shariatmadari is warm, wise and wonderfully steeped in his subject - the perfect guide to the brilliantly strange world of language -- MARINA HYDE An illuminating and thought-provoking journey through language -- DEAN BURNETT David Shariatmadari translates the often arcane theories of linguistics into a sequence of accessible ideas and theories, making us look afresh at the language we speak and how it structures our intimacies, our thoughts, and our identities. Wry and immensely intelligent, this learned book awakens us to complexities of communication that we too readily ignore, and it does so with both deep scholarship and a light touch -- ANDREW SOLOMON Wonderful. David Shariatmadari wears his deep learning with such an admirable and alluring lightness of touch. He brilliantly swats away the pesky 'language guardian' flies, whose misbegotten pedantries and ignorant persnicketiness are the real threats to living language. You finish the book more alive than ever to the enduring mystery and miracle of that thing that makes us most human, the gift of language that was bestowed upon us so astonishingly recently in evolutionary time and that has made us everything that we are . . . for good or ill -- STEPHEN FRY