11 Best Linguistics Books
Linguistics is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Linguistics audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 11 Linguistics audiobooks below.
-
Wordslut
- By: Amanda Montell
- Narrator: Amanda Montell
- Length: 6 hours 56 minutes
- Publisher: Harper Wave
- Publish date: May 28, 2019
- Language: English
-
4.37(8045 ratings)
4.37(8045 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.99 USDA brash, enlightening, and wildly entertaining feminist look at gendered language and the way it shapes us, written with humor and playfulness that challenges words and phrases and how we use them. “I get so jazzed about the future of feminismA brash, enlightening, and wildly entertaining feminist look at gendered language and the way it shapes us, written with humor and playfulness that challenges words and phrases and how we use them.
“I get so jazzed about the future of feminism knowing that Amanda Montell’s brilliance is rising up and about to explode worldwide.”–Jill Soloway
The word bitch conjures many images for many people, but it is most often meant to describe an unpleasant woman. Even before its usage to mean a female canine, bitch didn’t refer to gender at all–it originated as a gender-neutral word meaning genitalia. A perfectly innocuous word devolving into a female insult is the case for tons more terms, including hussy–which simply meant housewife–or slut, which meant an untidy person and was also used to describe men. These words are just a few among history’s many English slurs hurled at women.
Amanda Montell, reporter and feminist linguist, deconstructs language–from insults and cursing, gossip, and catcalling to grammar and pronunciation patterns–to reveal the ways it has been used for centuries to keep women and other marginalized genders from power. Ever wonder why so many people are annoyed when women talk with vocal fry or use the word like as a filler? Or why certain gender-neutral terms stick and others don’t? Or where stereotypes of how women and men speak come from in the first place?
Montell effortlessly moves between history, science, and popular culture to explore these questions and more–and how we can use the answers to effect real social change. Montell’s irresistible humor shines through, making linguistics not only approachable but both downright hilarious and profound, demonstrated in chapters such as:
- Slutty Skanks and Nasty Dykes: A Comprehensive List of Gendered Insults
- How to Embarrass the Shit Out of People Who Try to Correct Your Grammar
- Fuck it: An Ode to Cursing While Female
- Cyclops, Panty Puppet, Bald Headed Bastard and 100+ Other Things to Call Your Genitalia
Montell effortlessly moves between history and popular culture to explore these questions and more. Wordslut gets to the heart of our language, marvels at its elasticity, and sheds much-needed light into the biases that shadow women in our culture and our consciousness.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
... Read more -
The Book of Nonexistent Words
- By: Stefano Massini
- Narrator: John Lee
- Length: 6 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 05, 2021
- Language: English
-
4.14(30 ratings)
4.14(30 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.99 USDThe internationally acclaimed author harnesses his brilliant imagination and masterful storytelling ability to create a catalog of new words inspired by stories of real people in this wondrous book reminiscent of Italo Calvino’s mesmerizingThe internationally acclaimed author harnesses his brilliant imagination and masterful storytelling ability to create a catalog of new words inspired by stories of real people in this wondrous book reminiscent of Italo Calvino’s mesmerizing Invisible Cities.
How many times have words not been enough?
How many complex feelings don’t have a corresponding noun that properly describes them?
How many times has language left us like an archer without arrows in the labyrinth of our emotions?
Award-winning author Stefano Massini, a master of expression,, made a discovery that shot new life into his writing practice. To his surprise he found that the ancient rules of language were not quite as restrictive as he had long envisioned them to be. With so many emotions and states of mind missing modern descriptors and definitions, Massini stumbled across a simple but artistry-altering idea. Instead of compromising honest expression through perfunctory verbiage, he decided language was, if anything, a flowing palette of colors he could use to paint all things. Words are meant to be invented.
To reconfirm his belief in the magic of words, Massini returned to the wondrous mechanism that has fed dictionaries from time immemorial. If he could not find the precise word he wanted, he created one. In this delightful compendium, he introduces his personal vocabulary; every chapter mentions a new word that comes from a story about a real person, from Louis XIV to an American gangster.
The Book of Nonexistent Words is a beautifully illustrated collection of linguistic origin stories wrought from the mind of an internationally renowned storytelling icon. Massini effectively liberates our human capacity for using language creatively and shows how we can embrace storytelling to fine tune our way of being in the world. Massini encourages us to be imaginative; if the language in the dictionary cannot adequately match the reality of the here and now, we must create new words that ring true.
Translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon
... Read more -
Pretty Bitches
- By: Lizzie Skurnick
- Narrator: Andrea Lopez
- Length: 8 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: March 03, 2020
- Language: English
-
3.96(548 ratings)
3.96(548 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDThese empowering essays from leading women writers examine the power of the gendered language that is used to diminish women — and imagine a more liberated world.Words matter. They wound, they inflate, they define, they demean. They haveThese empowering essays from leading women writers examine the power of the gendered language that is used to diminish women — and imagine a more liberated world.... Read moreWords matter. They wound, they inflate, they define, they demean. They have nuance and power. “Effortless,” “Sassy,” “Ambitious,” “Aggressive”: What subtle digs and sneaky implications are conveyed when women are described with words like these? Words are made into weapons, warnings, praise, and blame, bearing an outsized influence on women’s lives — to say nothing of our moods.No one knows this better than Lizzie Skurnick, writer of the New York Times’ column “That Should be A Word”and a veritable queen of cultural coinage. And in Pretty Bitches, Skurnick has rounded up a group of powerhouse women writers to take on the hidden meanings of these words, and how they can limit our worlds — or liberate them.
From Laura Lipmann and Meg Wolizer to Jennifer Weiner and Rebecca Traister, each writer uses her word as a vehicle for memoir, cultural commentary, critique, or all three. Spanning the street, the bedroom, the voting booth, and the workplace, these simple words have huge stories behind them — stories it’s time to examine, re-imagine, and change.
-
The N Word
- By: Jabari Asim
- Narrator: Mirron Willis
- Length: 9 hours 25 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
-
3.94(501 ratings)
3.94(501 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDIn The N Word, a renowned cultural critic untangles the twisted history and future of racism through its most volatile word. In 2003, the book Nigger started an intense conversation about the use and implications of that epithet. The N Word movesIn The N Word, a renowned cultural critic untangles the twisted history and future of racism through its most volatile word.
In 2003, the book Nigger started an intense conversation about the use and implications of that epithet. The N Word moves beyond that short, provocative book by revealing how the word has both reflected and spread the scourge of bigotry in America.
Asim claims that, even when uttered by hipsters and hip-hop icons, the slur helps keep blacks at the bottom of America’s socioeconomic ladder. But he also proves there is a place for this word in the mouths and on the pens of those who truly understand its twisted history—from Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle to Mos Def. Only when we know its legacy can we loosen this slur’s grip on our national psyche.
... Read more -
The Story of English in 100 Words
- By: David Crystal
- Narrator: David Crystal
- Length: 7 hours 56 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2012
- Language: English
-
3.91(1807 ratings)
3.91(1807 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.95 USDIn this unique new history of the world’s most ubiquitous language, linguistics expert David Crystal draws on words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences, and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since theIn this unique new history of the world’s most ubiquitous language, linguistics expert David Crystal draws on words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences, and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the first definitively English word was written down in the fifth century (“roe,” in case you are wondering). Featuring Latinate and Celtic words, weasel words and nonce-words, ancient words (“loaf”) to cutting-edge words (“twittersphere”), and spanning the indispensable words that shape our tongue (“and,” “what”) to the more fanciful (“fopdoodle”), Crystal takes us along the winding byways of language via the rude, the obscure, and the downright surprising.
... Read more -
The Language of Thieves
- By: Martin Puchner
- Narrator: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 7 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: November 26, 2020
- Language: English
-
3.91(160 ratings)
3.91(160 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDCenturies ago in middle Europe, a coded language appeared, scrawled in graffiti and spoken only by people who were wiz (in the know). This hybrid language, dubbed Rotwelsch, facilitated survival for people in flight?whether escaping persecution orCenturies ago in middle Europe, a coded language appeared, scrawled in graffiti and spoken only by people who were wiz (in the know). This hybrid language, dubbed Rotwelsch, facilitated survival for people in flight?whether escaping persecution or just down on their luck. It was a language of the road associated with vagabonds, travelers, Jews, and thieves that blended words from Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Romani, Czech, and other European languages and was rich in expressions for police, jail, or experiencing trouble, such as being in a pickle. This renegade language unsettled those in power, who responded by trying to stamp it out, none more vehemently than the Nazis.As a boy, Martin Puchner learned this secret language from his father and uncle. Only as an adult did he discover, through a poisonous 1930s tract on Jewish names buried in the archives of Harvard’s Widener Library, that his own grandfather had been a committed Nazi who despised this language of thieves. Interweaving family memoir with an adventurous foray into the mysteries of language, Puchner crafts an entirely original narrative. In a language born of migration and survival, he discovers a witty and resourceful spirit of tolerance that remains essential in our volatile present.
... Read more -
Reader, Come Home
- By: Maryanne Wolf
- Narrator: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 6 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: August 07, 2018
- Language: English
-
3.88(2035 ratings)
3.88(2035 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.99 USDFrom the author of Proust and the Squid, a lively, ambitious, and deeply informative epistolary book that considers the future of the reading brain and our capacity for critical thinking, empathy, and reflection as we become increasingly dependentFrom the author of Proust and the Squid, a lively, ambitious, and deeply informative epistolary book that considers the future of the reading brain and our capacity for critical thinking, empathy, and reflection as we become increasingly dependent on digital technologies.
A decade ago, Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid revealed what we know about how the brain learns to read and how reading changes the way we think and feel. Since then, the ways we process written language have changed dramatically with many concerned about both their own changes and that of children. New research on the reading brain chronicles these changes in the brains of children and adults as they learn to read while immersed in a digitally dominated medium.
Drawing deeply on this research, this book comprises a series of letters Wolf writes to us–her beloved readers–to describe her concerns and her hopes about what is happening to the reading brain as it unavoidably changes to adapt to digital mediums. Wolf raises difficult questions, including:
- Will children learn to incorporate the full range of “deep reading” processes that are at the core of the expert reading brain?
- Will the mix of a seemingly infinite set of distractions for children’s attention and their quick access to immediate, voluminous information alter their ability to think for themselves?
- With information at their fingertips, will the next generation learn to build their own storehouse of knowledge, which could impede the ability to make analogies and draw inferences from what they know?
- Will all these influences, in turn, change the formation in children and the use in adults of “slower” cognitive processes like critical thinking, personal reflection, imagination, and empathy that comprise deep reading and that influence both how we think and how we live our lives?
- Will the chain of digital influences ultimately influence the use of the critical analytical and empathic capacities necessary for a democratic society?
- How can we preserve deep reading processes in future iterations of the reading brain?
- Who are the “good readers” of every epoch?
Concerns about attention span, critical reasoning, and over-reliance on technology are never just about children–Wolf herself has found that, though she is a reading expert, her ability to read deeply has been impacted as she has become, inevitably, increasingly dependent on screens.
Wolf draws on neuroscience, literature, education, technology, and philosophy and blends historical, literary, and scientific facts with down-to-earth examples and warm anecdotes to illuminate complex ideas that culminate in a proposal for a biliterate reading brain. Provocative and intriguing, Reader, Come Home is a roadmap that provides a cautionary but hopeful perspective on the impact of technology on our brains and our most essential intellectual capacities–and what this could mean for our future.
... Read more -
The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
- By: John M. Allegro
- Narrator: Martyn Swain
- Length: 10 hours 33 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: December 06, 2022
- Language: English
-
3.76(688 ratings)
3.76(688 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDWhere did God come from? What do the bible stories really tell us? Who or what was Jesus Christ? This book challenges everything we think we know about the nature of religion: -The ancient fertility cult at the heart of Christianity. -The livingWhere did God come from? What do the bible stories really tell us? Who or what was Jesus Christ? This book challenges everything we think we know about the nature of religion: -The ancient fertility cult at the heart of Christianity. -The living power of cultic rites and symbols. -The sacred mushroom as the emblem and embodiment of divinity. -The secret meaning of biblical myths. -The language of religion that links us to our ancestors. The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross sets out John Allegro’s quest through a family tree of languages to find the truth about where Christianity came from.
... Read more -
Alphabet Juice
- By: Roy Blount, Jr., Jr.
- Narrator: Roy Blount, Jr., Jr.
- Length: 5 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: October 14, 2008
- Language: English
-
3.61(756 ratings)
3.61(756 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDAli G: How many words does you know? Noam Chomsky: Normally, humans, by maturity, have tens of thousands of them. Ali G: What is some of ’em?— Youtube.com After forty years of making a living using words in every medium, print orAli G: How many words does you know?
Noam Chomsky: Normally, humans, by maturity, have tens of thousands of them.
Ali G: What is some of ’em?
— Youtube.comAfter forty years of making a living using words in every medium, print or electronic, except greeting cards, Roy Blount Jr. still can’t get over his ABCs. In Alphabet Juice, he celebrates the juju, the sonic and kinetic energies of letters and their combinations. Blount does not prescribe proper English. The franchise he claims is “over the counter” and concentrates more on questions such as these: Did you know that both mammal and matter derive from baby talk? Have you noticed how wince makes you wince?
Three and a half centuries ago, Sir Thomas Blount produced Blount’s Glossographia, the first dictionary to explore derivations of English words. This Blount’s Glossographia takes that pursuit to other levels. It rejects the standard linguistic notion that the connection between words and their meanings is “arbitrary.” Even the word arbitrary is shown to be no more arbitrary, at its roots, than go-to guy or crackerjack. From sources as venerable as the OED (in which Blount finds an inconsistency, at whisk) and as fresh as Urbandictionary.com (to which Blount has contributed the number-one definition of “alligator arm”), and especially from the author’s own wide-ranging experience, Alphabet Juice derives an organic take on language that is unlike, and more fun than, any other.
... Read more -
The Dictionary Wars
- By: Peter Martin
- Length: 13 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: June 04, 2019
- Language: English
-
3.43(116 ratings)
3.43(116 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDA compelling history of the national conflicts that resulted from efforts to produce the first definitive American dictionary of English In The Dictionary Wars, Peter Martin recounts the patriotic fervor in the early American republic to produce aA compelling history of the national conflicts that resulted from efforts to produce the first definitive American dictionary of English In The Dictionary Wars, Peter Martin recounts the patriotic fervor in the early American republic to produce a definitive national dictionary that would rival Samuel Johnson’s 1755 Dictionary of the English Language. But what began as a cultural war of independence from Britain devolved into a battle among lexicographers, authors, scholars, and publishers, all vying for dictionary supremacy and shattering forever the dream of a unified American language. The overwhelming questions in the dictionary wars involved which and whose English was truly American and whether a dictionary of English should attempt to be American at all, independent from Britain. Martin tells the human story of the intense rivalry between America’s first lexicographers, Noah Webster and Joseph Emerson Worcester, who fought over who could best represent the soul and identity of American culture. Webster believed an American dictionary, like the American language, ought to be informed by the nation’s republican principles, but Worcester thought that such language reforms were reckless and went too far. Their conflict continued beyond Webster’s death, when the no-nonsense Merriam brothers acquired publishing rights to Webster’s American Dictionary and launched their own language wars. From the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the Civil War, the dictionary wars also engaged America’s colleges, libraries, newspapers, religious groups, and state legislatures at a pivotal historical moment that coincided with rising literacy and the print revolution. Delving into the personal stories and national debates that arose from the conflicts surrounding America’s first dictionaries, The Dictionary Wars examines the linguistic struggles that underpinned the founding and growth of a nation.
... Read more -
A Way With Words
- By: Michael Drout
- Narrator: Michael Drout
- Length: 7 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: September 12, 2008
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDIn A Way with Words: Writing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Persuasion, esteemed professor Michael D.C. Drout brings his expertise in literary studies to the subject of rhetoric. From history-altering political speeches to friendly debates at cocktailIn A Way with Words: Writing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Persuasion, esteemed professor Michael D.C. Drout brings his expertise in literary studies to the subject of rhetoric. From history-altering political speeches to friendly debates at cocktail parties, rhetoric holds the power to change opinions, spark new thoughts, and ultimately change the world. Professor Drout examines the types of rhetoric and their effects, the structure of effective arguments, and how subtleties of language can be employed to engage in more successful rhetoric.
... Read more
Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
Recent Blogs
-
July 06, 2023
Which books are available on Spotify?
-
July 06, 2023
Are audiobooks free on Spotify with membership?
-
June 25, 2023
Top Destinations for Free eBooks and Audiobooks Online
-
June 25, 2023
Best Alternative to Barnes & Noble Online
-
June 25, 2023
The Best Places to Buy eBooks: Beyond the Kindle Ecosystem
-
June 25, 2023
What are the best places to find free ebooks?
-
June 25, 2023
Best Independent Companies to Buy eBooks from
-
April 19, 2023
How many Game of Thrones books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
Where to buy cheap books: A comprehensive guide
-
April 19, 2023
How many Jack Reacher books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
How many FNAF books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
How many Warrior Cats books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
How many Wheel of Time books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
The best Vampire Survivors powerups in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read the Robert Galbraith books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read the Artemis Fowl books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read Craig Johnson’s books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read Cassandra Clare’s books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read Lee Child’s books in order
-
April 18, 2023
How to read the In Death book series in order
-
April 18, 2023
Best book quotes
-
April 18, 2023
A tale of two cities reviewed
-
April 18, 2023
All the President’s Men reviewed
-
April 18, 2023
Tintin reviewed
-
April 18, 2023
What are adult coloring books?
-
April 18, 2023
How to read the Percy Jackson books in order
-
April 11, 2023
How to find charities for the blind
-
April 11, 2023
What is the best Bible app
-
April 11, 2023
Where to find free audio Bible downloads
-
April 11, 2023
What is the best free Bible app
More in this series
- 29 Best Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), History Books
- 12 Best Nationalism & Patriotism, Political Science Books
- 12 Best Black Studies (Global) Books
- 29 Best 20th Century, Social Science Books
- Learn American history with the best books by David McCullough
- 20 Best Bedtime & Dreams Books
- 29 Best Workplace Culture, Business & Economics Books
- 13 Best Paul’s Letters, Religion Books
- 29 Best Psychopathology Books
- 29 Best Inspirational Books
- 29 Best Civil Rights, Political Science Books
- 12 Best Spirituality, Body, Mind & Spirit Books
- 29 Best Judaism Books
- 10 Best Advertising & Promotion, Business & Economics Books
- 19 Best Missions Books
- 13 Best Poverty & Homelessness Books
- 29 Best Prejudice & Racism Books
- 12 Best Counseling & Recovery, SELF-HELP Books
- 16 Best Happiness, Business & Economics Books
- 28 Best Diets Books
- 29 Best Interpersonal Relations Books
- Books on tape for the blind
- 21 Best Eschatology Books
- 22 Best Yoga Books
- 29 Best World War II, History Books
- 11 Best Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Political Science Books
- 29 Best Political Ideologies Books
- 29 Best Motivational & Inspirational, Self-Help Books
- 29 Best Native American & Aboriginal , Fiction Books
- 29 Best Artists, Architects, Books