Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English

snippy grammar mavens

certain flowers to spread, drip, dot, dapple

However, people way back when were no more given to gliding around talking like books than we are, and in fact, writing and talking were much more different for them than for us.

But when we are dealing with languages of antiquity, whose casual renditions we cannot experience, the gulf between writing and speaking cannot help but be less apparent

ruling the roost