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About the Author

Works by Mario Pei

The Story of Language (1949) 466 copies
A Dictionary of Linguistics (1954) — Editor — 81 copies
Dictionary of Foreign Terms (1974) 54 copies
Language for Everybody (1956) 40 copies
Getting Along in German (1957) 34 copies
Getting Along in French (1957) 26 copies
World's Chief Languages (1945) 23 copies
Getting Along in Spanish (1957) 22 copies
New Italian Self-Taught (1959) 19 copies
Double-Speak in America, (1973) 18 copies
All About Language (1954) 18 copies
Getting Along in Russian (1960) 17 copies
One language for the world (1958) 14 copies
Our names, where they came from and what they mean (1955) — Joint Author. — 14 copies
The families of words (1962) 12 copies
Swords of Anjou (1953) 9 copies
Our national heritage (1965) 9 copies
The America We Lost (1969) 8 copies
Swords for Charlemagne (1955) 8 copies
The many hues of English (1967) 8 copies
Getting along in Italian (1965) 7 copies
Language Today (1967) 6 copies
The Italian Language (1941) 2 copies
First-Year French (1957) 1 copy

Associated Works

How to Build a Better Vocabulary (1961) — Introduction — 263 copies
The Talisman Italian Cook Book (1950) — Introduction — 196 copies
Snoopy's Philosophy (1960) — Translator — 70 copies
The adventure of language (1963) — Editor — 19 copies
Our language; the story of the words we use (1955) — Introduction — 12 copies
The Golden Carnation and Other Stories Told in Italy (1960) — Foreword, some editions — 10 copies
Words, words, and words about dictionaries (1963) — Contributor — 8 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1901
Date of death
1978
Gender
male
Nationality
Italy (birth)
USA
Places of residence
Rome, Italy
New York, New York, USA
Education
City College of New York
Columbia University
Occupations
professor
author
consultant to OSS, etc.
Organizations
US Army School in Monterey
NATO
University of Pittsburgh
Columbia University
Short biography
Mario Andrew Pei was born in Rome, Italy, in 1901. Like many Italians of the period, he moved with his family to New York City in 1908. Following his own father's scholarly example, he attended many public and parochial schools. He was an excellent student and was already fluent in five languages by the time he graduated from High School. He went on to learn 30 other languages, as well as the sentence structures of over 100 more languages. His education included receiving a bachelor's degree from City College of New York and a doctorate from Colombia University in 1937.

He started teaching languages at City College in 1923 and joined the Department of Romance Languages at Colombia University in 1928. In 1932, he published "The Italian Language.” During World War II, his language proficiency was put to use as a language consultant to the Office of War Information and the Office of Strategic Services. It was then at he wrote language courses and guides.

Members

Reviews

A linguist of reknown explains his dictionary: "I have tried to include the general terminology used by linguists of a certain stature that has gained a measure of acceptance."
 
Flagged
keylawk | 1 other review | Nov 12, 2019 |
Polyglot Mario Pei writes about the evolution of language and how language changes. Must have for any classic linguistic or history library.
 
Flagged
atufft | 2 other reviews | Jul 16, 2019 |
Must have linguistic classic about the origins and evolution of the English language. First Edition
 
Flagged
atufft | 3 other reviews | Jul 16, 2019 |
Polyglot Mario Pei is widely referenced by modern linguists. His history of English language is one of his two classics. Very Good with DJ $45 2018
 
Flagged
atufft | 3 other reviews | Aug 29, 2018 |

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Associated Authors

Statistics

Works
58
Also by
10
Members
1,801
Popularity
#14,290
Rating
3.9
Reviews
17
ISBNs
91
Languages
2
Favorited
1

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