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Loading... The Mother Tongueby Bill Bryson
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  VirginiaGill | Aug 19, 2009 |  Chuckle-worthy and interesting as well...: This book manages to make the history of the English Language amusing and interesting. It is a thorough examination of words, how we use them and how they evolved - including swear words, cuss words, slang and everyday things like... why DID the yanks take the second 'i' out of aluminium? 1  |  iayork | Aug 9, 2009 | This book is incredibly educational, but also fun. The only problem that I had with the text is that it becomes increasingly more boring as you make your way through it. I would suggest attempting to read it while working through other things. I was really tired of reading pronunciations of southern British towns by the end of it. Incredibly scholarship. Everyone should give it a chance. (  ) Kunzelman | Aug 7, 2009 | Fairly superficial, a few unwarranted assumptions. a few errors, but an interesting read none the less. A standard Bryson book. (  ) PeterGWard | Aug 4, 2009 | learnt some things while laughing purplesue | Jun 28, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0380715430, Paperback)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. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:56 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Even if you never thought languages interesting this one is worth the read. You will laugh out loud. (