Biting the Wax Tadpole: Confessions of a Language Fanatic | 
| Author: Elizabeth Little
Publisher: Melville House
Category: Book
Buy New: $54.95
New (3) Used (5) from $19.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 336379
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 184
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 7 x 0.9
ISBN: 1933633336
Dewey Decimal Number: 400
EAN: 9781933633336
ASIN: 1933633336
Publication Date: November 20, 2007
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"Charming anecdotes, witty sidebars, attractive illustrations.... Little’s strong sense of humor never overwhelms her love of languages in this fascinating yet educational introduction to linguistics for a wide, pop-savvy audience.” – Publishers Weekly “A delightful language scrapbook – the deliberately disjointed diary of a language lover.” – Chicago Tribune “A tour of all the quirk and queerness to be found among the world's many dialects ... her meandering, highly-readable riffs on Finnish prepositions and Incan counting systems manage to be funny, earnest, and not funny because of their earnestness – something of a feat for a book that could be used as a grammar primer.” – The Onion A.V. Club “A wrap-worthy language book. A multilingual voyage, exploring the ?quirks, innovations, and implausibilities’ of the world's languages.” – Boston Globe "This is a fun book for grammar and pop-culture lovers alike. Little provides grammar basics and little-known facts by incorporating stories of her travels, Star Wars, Dr. Seuss and other familiar icons. It's both a breezy read and a useful resource.” – Pop Candy, USAToday.com “[A] quirky, funny, intelligent little book ? complete with amusing illustrations. Little has packed her work chock-full of the world’s tantalizing linguistic nuggets.” – Newsday "It's clear that Elizabeth Little's omnivorous curiosity has suited her well... This short, neon-colored book walks readers through categories that on paper should seem dry, from pronouns to numbers, spicing everything up with cultural comparisons.” - The Newark Star-Ledger "[A] feisty romp through the world's languages.” - Rob Kyff, The Word Guy
“Witty, sassy, and laugh-out-loud funny. Little convincingly demonstrates that, as she puts it, 'language is nothing less than a great adventure.' So is her book.” – Kitty Burns Florey, author of Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog "If you like language, you'll love Biting the Wax Tadpole. Elizabeth Little has mused on, used, and even misused many of the planet's languages, and this fascinating and often hilarious book gives a full account of her adventures.” – Ben Greenman, author of A Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both and Superbad
In a decidedly unstuffy look at the staid world of languages, Elizabeth Little uses her favorite examples from languages dead, difficult, and just plain made-up to reveal how language study is the ticket to traveling the world without leaving the comforts of home. Little’s exploration of “word travel” includes Shona, a language lacking distinct words for “blue” or “green,” why Icelandic speakers must decide if the numbers 1-4 are plural, which language is the only one lacking verbs, and just what, exactly, the Swedish names of IKEA products mean.
Fully illustrated with hilarious sidebars, Biting the Wax Tadpole also addresses classic cases of mistranslation. For example, when Chinese shopkeepers tried to find a phonetic written equivalent of Coca-Cola, one set of characters they chose were pronounced “ke-kou ke-la.” It sounded right, but it translated literally as “bite the wax tadpole.” Not quite what Coke had in mind, but in this off-kilter ode to the words of the world, it’s just another example of language taking you someplace interesting.
Elizabeth Little is a writer and editor living in New York City. She has worked as a literary agent and as a writer and editor for the travel guide Let's Go: China, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times. This is her first book.
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| Customer Reviews:
A real pleasure to read July 1, 2008
Let's get something out of the way first: I am a "language person." I understand languages intuitively and have very few problems learning them. That said, however, I share Elizabeth Little's passion for languages. I loved reading this book, especially as she went over languages that I've studied - Spanish, German, and Arabic - and over languages I will eventually study - Hebrew, Ancient Greek, Latin, Sanskrit - and, thanks to her irreverent, informal, entertaining style, the whole experience was extremely pleasant. If you're at all interested in languages, this is one book to pick up immediately.
Absolutely beguiling -- if you're a language geek. April 1, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
It's time for the annual sheap-shearing contest in the Aberfan Valley. You're there, checking your flock before entering. How do you count?
Yan, tan, tether, mether, pip, azer, sezar, akker, conter, dick, yanadick, tanadick, tetheradick, metheradick, bumfit, yanabum, tanabum, tetherabum, metherabum, jigget.
This vestigial vigesimal counting system is just one of the many delights to be found in Elizabeth Little's completely enchanting book of musings on language. As she puts it, the words are "utterly charming, sounding like nothing so much as the names a young Will Shakespeare might have conjured up for a litter of adorable kittens." She's right -- I have no words to describe how much joy that little sequence "yanadick, tanadick, tetheradick, metheradick, bumfit" brings me, except to say that when I first read it, I literally squealed with delight . And how often does one get to do that these days?
Though the chapter names are sober: "NOUNS, VERBS, NUMBERS, MODIFIERS, SPEECH", this is a book which romps, gambols, and frolics along the highways and byways of language, unearthing fascinating nuggets along the way. Little claims no formal qualification for writing on linguistic topics, other than a lifelong enthusiasm for language. In writing such a wonderful book, she has demonstrated that no other qualification is needed.
If you are a language geek (like me), this book gets 5 stars hands down. Though it seems hard to believe, not everyone will stare transfixed by the beauty of the declension table specifying all 18 Hungarian case endings that Little includes in the book. But for those of you who find such matters eerily fascinating (and you know who you are!), "Biting the Wax Tadpole" is a garden of earthly delights.
A Fun Look at World Linguistics January 26, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
As a professional writer, I really should have much more than a passing interest in the finer points of grammar and linguistics. So, to assuage my guilt, I periodically try to find a book that will help me learn more about English and its illogical curiosities, not to mention its austere technicalities. It can be a bit embarrassing. For example, if someone who knows that I'm a writer asks me to define the copulative then I'll try to change the conversation to football, which I find fifty times more interesting than grammar. Of course, it depends who's asking.
This book caught my eye initially because it's yellow. Every other book about the language is light blue, dark blue, light mauve, taupe, or fawn. I also liked the title which is as strong a non sequitur as Monty Python's Flying Circus. Most books about linguistics have dreary titles and a dreary layout. Memo to publishers. Try this next time...The Hooters Monthly Guide to Semantics and Participles, or Debbie Does Declensions. This approach might increase sales and interest.
While Biting the Wax Tadpole is a serious look at a serious subject, Elizabeth Little writes with a warm, self-effacing, and generous style that makes the technical interesting and fun. To be honest, some of the work is a bit deep for me and might be best for, say, a tenured professor of linguistics, but the the journey around the world's languages is a crazy ride that makes me appreciate my native language and hope that I never get caught in Swaziland trying to find a square meal. I, for one, am glad that we don't have masculine and feminine nouns with no logical way to determine gender. Imagine what the political correctness mafia here would do with that system! Look at what they have organized, as Little points out, with "alumni."
Anyway, this book is a must for anyone who loves language and/or works in the field. Biting the Wax Tadpole provides an intriguing and witty introduction to how we communicate. And it's yellow.
I hope that Elizabeth Little writes many more books--on many more subjects.
The wittiest book on the quirks of language you'll ever find! December 11, 2007
25 out of 25 found this review helpful
Little's look at the world of languages, their common traits, and their huge range of differences, will introduce everyone but the most well-informed of linguistic scholars to the unique and at times amusing quirks of language. From languages that click, to languages with only three names of colors, Little takes us on a grand tour through both time and space, broadening our horizons and understandings of history and culture as evidenced by the way people have used language.
The real charm of the book, however, is Little's frequent use of pop cultural references, witty remarks, and double entendres, to make what could be a dry topic turn out simply effervescent. Any reader will be infused with Little's own passion for languages after turning just a few short pages.
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