Are You Speaking My Language?: The Secret Words and Habits of 100 Modern Tribes

Dent, Susie

ISBN 10: 1473623871 / ISBN 13: 9781473623873

Published by John Murray Pubs Ltd, 2016

About this Item

336 pages. 8.58x5.63x1.22 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # zk1473623871

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Are You Speaking My Language?: The Secret Words and Habits of 100 Modern Tribes
• Publisher: John Murray Pubs Ltd
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1473623871
• ISBN 13: 9781473623873
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.49 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

Did you know that . . . a soldier's biggest social blunder is called jack brew - making yourself a cuppa without making one for anyone else? That twitchers have an expression for a bird that can't be identified - LBJ (the letters stand for Little Brown Job)? Or that builders call plastering the ceiling doing Lionel Richie's dancefloor? Susie Dent does.

Ever wondered why football managers all speak the same way, what a cabbie calls the Houses of Parliament, or how ticket inspectors discreetly request back-up? We are surrounded by hundreds of tribes, each speaking their own distinct slanguage of colourful words, jokes and phrases, honed through years of conversations on the battlefield, in A&E, backstage, or at ten-thousand feet in the air.

Susie Dent has spent years interviewing hundreds of professionals, hobbyists and enthusiasts, and the result is an idiosyncratic phrasebook like no other. From the Freemason's handshake to the publican's banter, Dent's Modern Tribes takes us on a whirlwind tour of Britain, decoding its secret languages and, in the process, finds out what really makes us all tick.

About the Author

Susie Dent is the resident word expert in Dictionary Corner on C4's Countdown and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. She comments regularly on TV and radio on words in the news, and has contributed to Woman's Hour, 15 x 15, Word of Mouth, More or Less, Today, BBC Breakfast, and R4's Wordaholics.. Susie is the author of several books, and has weekly columns in both the Radio Times and the website Mental Floss.