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The Mother Tongue
English and How It Got That Way

Rating
42,920 Ratings by Goodreads |
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Format
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
USA, 1 October 2001

The author of the acclaimed The Lost Continent now steers us through the quirks and byways of the English language. We learn why island, freight, and colonel are spelled in such unphonetic ways, why four has a u in it but forty doesn't, plus bizarre and enlightening facts about some of the patriarchs of this peculiar language.



Bill Bryson's bestselling books include One Summer, A Short History of Nearly Everything, At Home, A Walk in the Woods, Neither Here nor There, Made in America, and The Mother Tongue. He lives in England with his wife.


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Product Description

The author of the acclaimed The Lost Continent now steers us through the quirks and byways of the English language. We learn why island, freight, and colonel are spelled in such unphonetic ways, why four has a u in it but forty doesn't, plus bizarre and enlightening facts about some of the patriarchs of this peculiar language.



Bill Bryson's bestselling books include One Summer, A Short History of Nearly Everything, At Home, A Walk in the Woods, Neither Here nor There, Made in America, and The Mother Tongue. He lives in England with his wife.

Product Details
EAN
9780380715435
ISBN
0380715430
Publisher
Dimensions
13.5 x 1.8 x 20.3 centimeters (0.17 kg)

About the Author

Bill Bryson's bestselling books include One Summer, A Short History of Nearly Everything, At Home, A Walk in the Woods, Neither Here nor There, Made in America, and The Mother Tongue. He lives in England with his wife.

Reviews

"Complex and maddeningly illogical though it is, English is spoken by more than 300 million people around the world...Its story has been told before, but seldom as deftly or as memorably...An enthralling excursion...A motherlode of delectable trivia."--Burt Hochburg, "The New York Times Book Review""Diverting and richly anecdotal...Bryson is an unalloyed fan who relishes the language's versatility, verb hoard and vast vocabulary."--Robert Taylor, "Boston Globe""Vastly informative and vastly entertaining...A scholarly and fascinating book."--Fred S. Holley, "Los Angeles Times"

Linguistics as pop science: Mario Pei's works, such as The Story of Language , have shown how this formula can fascinate, and Bryson's ( The Lost Continent ) blend of linguistic anecdote and Anglo-Saxon cultural history likewise keeps us turning pages. Depth of treatment is not, however, to be found here. Bryson, who wants to see comedy in the English language's quest for hegemony in the modern world, strives for entertaining ironies. While his historical review is thorough, replete with enlightening scholarly citations, he mostly reiterates conventional views about English's structural superiority, asserting that the language dominates the globe today by virtue of its lack of inflection and its ``democratic'' suppleness in accommodating new forms. He retells old tales with fresh verve, and his review of the spelling reform movement has particular merit, but Bryson becomes sloppy when matters of rhetoric and grammar arise, e.g., ``He Shakespeare even used adverbs as nouns, as with `that bastardly rogue,' '' and in presenting his opinions (Samuel Johnson's prose is deemed ``rambling''). BOMC main selection . (July)

"Complex and maddeningly illogical though it is, English is spoken by more than 300 million people around the world...Its story has been told before, but seldom as deftly or as memorably...An enthralling excursion...A motherlode of delectable trivia."--Burt Hochburg, "The New York Times Book Review""Diverting and richly anecdotal...Bryson is an unalloyed fan who relishes the language's versatility, verb hoard and vast vocabulary."--Robert Taylor, "Boston Globe""Vastly informative and vastly entertaining...A scholarly and fascinating book."--Fred S. Holley, "Los Angeles Times"

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3.91 out of 5 | From 42,920 Goodreads Ratings

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By Sue on March 18, 2009
This is one of those books you have to have in your own bookshelf! It was lent to me and I could not put it down - it's brilliant and funny. The language is easy to read, even though it is all about how crazy and unorganised the English language is. I laughed and had lots of ooohh and aahhh moments as I read this man's experience of trying to teach others our mother tongue. I found it has improved my ability to impart language skills onto students, through a new awareness of how silly some of the words we use are. An excellent reference book, and excellent light read, and unlimited humour. Thoroughly recommend this book to everyone!
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By Colin on May 19, 2008
This is one of the most entertaining and informative books on the English language I have ever read – it is certainly the funniest. Bill Bryson is a smooth, highly readable writer and his exploration of the English language – looking at its history, the use of words (even the development of swear words if you’re interested in that), borrowings from other languages – is utterly fascinating. If you are not normally the sort of person interested in language in this way, then this is the book to read. Highly entertaining, and very funny in many places. One of my favourite books.
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