Words have bones

This manual was born from a question young readers often ask: what is endolinguistics good for? The short answer: for looking at words from the inside. Whoever learns to do it stops learning languages like someone carrying stones one at a time, and starts recognizing them.

In four parts, with explanations, examples, exercises and challenges, you learn to pull out the consonant skeleton of a word and to recognize the seven families of sounds (the OAS classes); to tell true relatives from deceptive look-alikes, and to follow the rules by which words change from one language to another, with a step-by-step study method; to hear what vowels, rhythm and stress say; and to think carefully, so you do not fool yourself.

You do not need to know linguistics or Latin: your own language and the wish to look are enough. Written above all for young people who are learning a language, who enjoy puzzles and codes, or who wonder how the mind works. Includes a quick-reference table, solutions, a glossary and further reading. Free.