With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson--the acclaimed author of The Lost Continent--brilliantly explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language. From the first descent of the larynx into the throat (why you can talk but your dog can't), to the fine lost art of swearing, Bryson tells the fascinating, often uproarious story of an inadequate, second-rate tongue of peasants that developed into one of the world's largest growth industries.
Who would have thought that a book about English would be so entertaining? Certainly not this grammar-allergic reviewer, but The Mother Tongue pulls it off admirably. Bill Bryson--a zealot--is the right man for the job. Who else could rhapsodize about "the colorless murmur of the schwa" with a straight face? It is his unflagging enthusiasm, seeping from between every sentence, that carries the book.
Bryson displays an encyclopedic knowledge of his topic, and this inevitably encourages a light tone; the more you know about a subject, the more absurd it becomes. No jokes are necessary, the facts do well enough by themselves, and Bryson supplies tens per page. As well as tossing off gems of fractured English (from a Japanese eraser: "This product will self-destruct in Mother Earth."), Bryson frequently takes time to compare the idiosyncratic tongue with other languages. Not only does this give a laugh (one word: Welsh), and always shed considerable light, it also makes the reader feel fortunate to speak English.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Spreading the Word :):
Bryson takes you through the linguistic and historical journey of English in a wonderfully informal, comedic, anecdotal, and fact-based way. I'm a high school English teacher and I'm having my juniors and seniors read it for class--they love it!! He reaches a wide array of audiences, trust me, making a possibly dry subject a fun and accessible one.
A book worth rereading:
An absolutely delightful introduction to a history of the English language. Like the author's "A Short History of Nearly Everything", it approaches a huge subject with great enthusiasm -giving me a general understanding of a topic I previously knew very little about. A joy to read. I've taken a few moments to write this very brief endorsement because I saw that one person was dissuaded from purchasing the book because of a one-star review. What a shame.
Flawed but Effective Introduction to What Makes English, and Language, Fascinating.:
"The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way" is an entertaining tour of the merits and idiosyncrasies of humanity's most global language: English. Author Bill Bryson introduces the reader to the history, evolution, and variety of English with good humor and lots of examples. Spoken fluently by probably about 400 million people worldwide, not including speakers of English-based creoles, English is not the most-spoken language, but it is the most studied, emulated, and widely distributed, being an... more info
Amazing!:
This book is a notch above Bryson's other books. And that is saying A LOT! It is compelling, very witty, and overall memorable. It certainly piqued by interested in the English language and linguistics in general. Do yourself a favour, and get this book. You will not be disappointed with this well-researched tome that Bryson produced here.
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