Product Description

How did English, 'treated for centuries as the inadequate and second-rate tongue of peasants' become the undisputed global language? How did words like shampoo, sofa and rowdy (and others drawn from over fifty languages) find their way into our dictionary? In this revealing and often hilarious book, Bill Bryson examines the mother tongue and explores the countless varieties of English and the perils of marketing brands with names like Pschitt and Super Piss. With entertaining sections on the oddities of swearing and spelling, spoonerisms and Scrabble, and a consideration of what we mean by 'good English', Mother Tongue is one of the most stimulating books yet written on this endlessly engrossing subject.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15744 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Who would have thought that a book about the English language 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 rhapsodise about "the colourless 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.

About the Author
Bill Bryson was born in 1951 in Iowa but lived in the UK for many years working as a sub-editor before becoming an international bestselling writer with books such as The Lost Continent and Notes from a Small Island. He now lives in New England with his wife and four children.

Customer Reviews

Truth or Not?
I found, for the most part of reading, this book to be very entertaining and informative. I read a few other Bryson books in the past, about travelling etc... but as an English teacher, well TEFL teacher, I thought this would be a great book to use quotes from for anecdotes during my lessons.

The problem occurred near the start of chapter 14 (out of 16).

Quote:
"Some cultures don't swear at all..... The Finns, lacking the sort of words you need to describe your feeling when you stub your toe getting up to answer a wrong number at 2.00 a.m., rather oddly adopted the word ravintolassa. It means 'in the restaurant'."

This is utter, for lack of a better word, hevosenpaska (literal translation "Horse S**t"). I have NEVER in my 10 years living in Finland heard anyone shout out RAVINTOLASSA, unless of course there were too many people in the restaurant and the guy was shouting into his mobile saying where he is. The Finns have quite a few swear words in their vocabulary that can be heard way too often.

So this led me to thinking, "if this is so way off track when it comes to Finland, what about the rest of the book when he writes about cultures I'm not familiar with?"

This has taken the shine off what I thought was an excellent piece of writing and that's why I'm giving it 2/5.

Sorry

Bryson makes me proud to be an Anglophone
While browsing in the linguistics section at a London bookshop, I came across this book. I had never heard of Bryson before, but the description on the back sounded so interesting, I bought it. Having just finished the book, I can only wonder how I managed to miss this guy's stuff all my life. This book is a fascinating journey through the history of English, the varieties of English in the world, spelling, pronunciation, and more. Bryson's style is fresh, funny, irreverent, and absorbing. I feel like I have found someone who loves nuance in language as much as I do, and is spot on when it comes to examining exactly the subtleties that get me fired up. Highly recommended to Anglophones interested in learning more about the language we call our own.

It's Bryson, but not as you know it
Having read most of Bill Bryson's travel books I decided to check out how he well he does with this particular one.

And I was very well surprised and recommend it.

This book is about the English language and how different it is from all other languages. Never short of boasting, Bryson explains that English' influences, early and recent, are responsible for its flexibility, apparent confusion of phonemes and complexity. There's also a quick history about not only English but related languages (i.e. Indo-European), putting it into perspective. There are also comparisons (short and few, in my view) with other languages. For example, do you know that in Portuguese there are two words for corner? "Esquina" means a "convex" corner and "Canto" means a "Concave" corner. Along with a few others - again, not many - you'll have some interesting pieces of useless information for dinner parties...

The book is very well written but don't you think you will find the usual quick-wit joke you're used to with Bryson. There's no sarchasm, self-deprecation, encounters with Swedish ticket booth attendants from hell or scottish ladies getting a train to go to Marks and Spencers in Inverness. In fact, it's because of that lack of humour spark that I'm not giving this book the 5 stars.

What you'll find is a wealth of information that you'll find interesting at the least (if you're a curious soul like me) or useful at most (if you are an English teacher or student, such as my wife - she's a teacher, not a student).

Whether you're a fan, interested in English as a language or just plain curious, I recommend this book. Although it's among his best you could do a lot worse if you want to read about this theme.