Free shipping on all orders over $79* Limited Time Only
Track My Order
Help Centre
Likes
My Wish ListsLogin / Join
Booktopia
Australia's local bookstore
Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Secret Language : Codes, Tricks, Spies, Thieves, and Symbols - Barry J. Blake

Secret Language

Codes, Tricks, Spies, Thieves, and Symbols

By: Barry J. Blake

eText | 25 March 2010

At a Glance

eText

$10.59

or 4 interest-free payments of $2.65 with

Instant online reading in your Booktopia eTextbook Library *

Why choose an eTextbook?

Instant Access *

Purchase and read your book immediately

Read Aloud

Listen and follow along as Bookshelf reads to you

Study Tools

Built-in study tools like highlights and more

* eTextbooks are not downloadable to your eReader or an app and can be accessed via web browsers only. You must be connected to the internet and have no technical issues with your device or browser that could prevent the eTextbook from operating.

This book is about language that is designed to mean what it does not seem to mean. Ciphers and codes conceal messages and protect secrets. Symbol and magic hide meanings to delight or imperil. Languages made to baffle and confuse let insiders talk openly without being understood by those beyond the circle. Barry Blake looks at these and many more. He explores the history and uses of the slangs and argots of schools and trades. He traces the centuries-old cants used by sailors and criminals in Britain, among them Polari, the mix of Italian, Yiddish, and slang once spoken among strolling players and circus folk and taken up by gays in the twentieth century. He examines the sacred languages of ancient cults and religions, uncovers the workings of onomancy, spells, and gematria, looks into the obliqueness of allusion and parody, and celebrates the absurdities of euphemism and jargon. Secret Language takes the reader on fascinating excursions down obscure byways of language, ranging across time and culture. With revelations on every page it will entertain anyone with an urge to know more about the most arcane and curious uses of language.

on
Desktop
Tablet
Mobile

You Can Find This eBook In

Non-FictionLanguage & LinguisticsReference, Dictionaries & GuidesLanguage History & General WorksLinguisticsHistorical & Comparative LinguisticsDialect

More in Linguistics

The Miracle of Language - Richard Lederer

eBOOK

The Miracle of Language

eBook

$13.99

Burn This Book : Notes on Literature and Engagement - Toni Morrison

eBOOK

Burn This Book

Notes on Literature and Engagement

eBook

RRP $25.99

$20.99

19%
OFF
How to Write a Sentence : And How to Read One - Stanley Fish

eBOOK

How to Write a Sentence

And How to Read One

eBook

RRP $26.99

$21.99

19%
OFF
Dictionary of American Slang - Barbara Ann Kipfer

eBOOK

Dictionary of American Slang

eBook

RRP $21.99

$17.99

18%
OFF
The Writing of Fiction - Edith Wharton

eBOOK

The Writing of Fiction

eBook

$9.99

The Art Of Rhetoric - Aristotle

eBOOK

The Art Of Rhetoric

eBook

$4.99

This product is categorised by