"Description: What do words as diverse as unkindness, haggard, who, asparagus, jizz, and singular they have to do with birds? Birding English discusses the connections between such words and the feathered inhabitants of our world. It is a revelatory journey through the history of English, an inspired fusion of ornithology and etymology, rich with curiosity, humor, and insight. Bridging the worlds of armchair logophiles and backyard birdwatchers, of trained linguists and professional ornithologists, this book offers a fresh approach to understanding English by tracking how the language that names, describes, and discusses birds has shaped Englishs evolution across fifteen centuries, as well as how that language gestures towards some of the major changes and debates in the history of English. From Old English roots and Shakespearean idioms to Victorian slang and modern digital lingo, Birding English charts a dynamic course through Englishs past, present, and future, stopping along the way to admire the plumage of falcons, the songs of sparrows, and the flight of ducks. With each of its fifty mini-essays, the book uses birds as a point of entry into a key moment in the development of English: its origins in the Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Germanic languages, the influence of writers like Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare, the creation of Englishs first dictionaries and grammar books, the arrival of rhyming slang and portmanteaus. Unlike previous books that simply compiled lists of avian metaphors or discuss the history of bird names in isolation from the larger history of English, Birding English places those metaphors and that history in a larger linguistic and historical context. Ideal for word nerds and bird nerds alike, this book will enchant anyone whos ever been captivated by the song of a bird or the song of a word"-- Provided by publisher.