Language buff? Don't miss The Language of Thieves.

The Language of Thieves: My Family's Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate by Martin Puchner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I'm a bit of a word geek, and The Language of Thieves was a great read for me. It looks at one secretive minority pidgin, Rotwelsch, and the obsession by it of three generations in one family. The author explores its melding of languages and uses it as a springboard to explore the secret words of other groups from stockbrokers to skateboarders and to show how languages can shift over time. It's a short read, and, if you like language and its intricacies, worth the time.




View all my reviews