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The Mother Tongue |  | Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Harper Perennial
List Price: $14.99
Buy Used: $1.81
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Seller: bayfrontbooks
Rating:  135 reviews
Sales Rank: 8273
Media: Paperback
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0380715430
Dewey Decimal Number: 420.9
EAN: 9780380715435
ASIN: 0380715430
Publication Date: September 1, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
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.
Product Description
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.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 135
 Mother Tongue-in-cheek November 13, 2009
Trevor Coote (Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia)
It has been said that English and American are two cultures divided by a common language. Here Bill Bryson, an American, gets to grips with that common language which through its extraordinary flexibility and the even more extraordinary willingness to welcome and absorb words and phrases from any of the world's five thousand-odd languages and dialects, has become the lingua franca of business, science and technology, and communication. Any past predictions that the English spoken in the two countries will gradually diverge into two mutually incomprehensible tongues has well and truly been laid to rest with the advent of the Internet since Bryson's book was first published. Despite 4000 different words in general usage it is very unlikely that serious confusion or misunderstanding would arise in an exchange between somebody from Birmingham, West Midlands or Birmingham, Alabama. Of course, the differences between American and British English is not the principal subject discussed in this fast-paced, humorous homage to the most expansive of the world's languages, though in some ways it is one of the most important, given the prominent role of the United States in shaping world economy and culture. Bryson is particularly strong on debunking the myths surrounding so-called Americanisms and the vitriol directed towards American English by British commentators and statesmen over the years. In fact, most terms were in usage in the mother country in the past, had died out there, and then were reintroduced in recent times from America to where they had previously been carried by British immigrants (Shakespeare, for example, used `trash', a word today associated uniquely with America).
Mother Tongue begins with a brief overview of the world's languages and is followed by a (scientifically dated) chapter on how and when language arose in humans and by what means it spread across the globe. We then learn how English morphed from an obscure peasant's language spoken on an obscure island 1500 years ago to become a linguistic superpower. There follow chapters on the varieties of English, how it came to be (loosely) standardised, the English-American schism, English as a world language, and on spelling, names, swearing and word play. English is, of course, spoken, pronounced and spelt in a multitude of forms. These variations are tailor-made for Bryson's familiar method of subjecting the reader to a dazzling bombardment of curious and often hilarious facts, anecdotes and rumours, some well-documented, some dubious and some plainly apocryphal. This is the style of the book throughout. Mother Tongue does not claim to be a work of scholarship but is a populist account based on extensive research and delivered with schoolboyish enthusiasm. It is pitched at a level that makes a complicated and sometimes abstruse subject available to all. This to me is the purpose of populist works: to introduce people to a subject and to encourage them to develop their fascination further. It is then that they move on to study more academic works. Mother Tongue fulfils the same role for English language and linguistics that Bryson's own A Short History of Nearly Everything does for science. Both books are highly recommended introductory texts.
wonderful research September 25, 2009
Frank W. Allen (grand rapids, mn)
Interesting information that has to have been a monumental task for the author. Not an easy read, but very interesting for writers, teachers, and others that are intrigued by the English language and its development and changes both over time and from place to place.
Funny and perceptive August 29, 2009
S. Stubenvoll (New Zealand)
A thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking look at derivations of words and implications for the English language. Has heaps of examples linked by interesting narrative and tends to be selective and readable rather than comprehensive and dull. A 15 year-old friend enjoyed it too.
 Interesting But Also Disappointing July 29, 2009
rusgc
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Others with more knowlege than I have commented on the errors and misstatements by the author. I'm a fan of his. "Walk in the Woods" and "The History Of Almost Everything" are 2 books I recommend to friends and family.
This review will be brief. I'm facintated by the subject of languages and how they develop and evolve. Some chapters were very interesting, others became bogged down in too many linguistic technicalities for me and I resorted to skimming or even skipping to get through them. After reading the reviews of those who say they are knowlegable on the subject, I'm disappointed I spent as much time as I did trying to absorb and remember many of his explanations, observations and factoids. There may be other books, with equal readability but more credibilty on the subject.
Fascinating study June 13, 2009
Caro (N Georgia)
I love Bill Bryson, and this book was no disappointment. There's not quite as much humor in it as in some of the others, but there are still plenty of laughs (one of my main motivations for reading his work). The information in this book fascinated me. Yes, it may not be the most authoritative work on the English language as some have said, but that's not why one reads Bill Bryson. I enjoyed it thoroughly and will continue to read and reread his books.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 135
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