We've all got our limits when it comes to accepting that language is a living thing that we can no more prevent from changing than Canute could control the tides.  I have got used to "loan" having overtaken "lend" although I don't like it, but I doubt I will ever accept "loan" in place of "borrow" as in "Lingo also looks at the words English has loaned from across the continent....".

The Lingo in question is a fascinating and enjoyable little book that takes a look at the features, quirks and oddities of  a multitude of European languages and fully lives up to its subtitle, A language spotter's guide to Europe.

It was paired at the Book Festival with Reading The World in which the author recounts her project to read a book from every country in the world.  Deciding what was a country and which to include was her first problem.  She finally settled on a UN list of 196 but added one more in the course of the project.  Getting hold of the books and more especially English versions of them was no picnic and in the case of Sao Tome she resorted to recruiting volunteer translators over the internet who willingly lent a hand, or for speakers of current English, loaned one.

As I write this I am listening via Youtube to Memoryhouse by Max Richter, a super piece of orchestral music that incorporates poetry, voice and electronics to great effect.  I much preferred it to his recomposed Four Seasons that was played on the same programme in the Playhouse a couple of days ago.  I'm giving the latter a second chance to convince me though since it's the soundtrack to part of a ballet programme I'm going to tonight.