The mother tongue : English & how it got that way

Title:

Author:

Summary:

Provides a humorous history of the English language covering such topics as spelling, pronunciation, swearing, and wordplay.

Contents:

The world's language -- The dawn of language -- Global language -- The first thousand years -- Where words come from -- Pronunciation -- Varieties of English -- Spelling -- Good English and bad -- Order out of chaos -- Old world, new world -- English as a world language -- Names -- Swearing -- Wordplay -- The future of English.

Physical Description:

270 p. ; 20 cm.

Subject Term:

English language -- History.

Publisher:

Perennial,

Publication Date:

2000

1990

ISBN:

9780380715435

Publication Information:

New York : Perennial, 2000, c1990.

Call Number:

420 BRYSON

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002879313	Adult Nonfiction	420 BRYSON	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

"Vastly informative and vastly entertaining...A scholarly and fascinating book." --Los Angeles Times

With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson 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.

Author Notes

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa on December 8, 1951. In 1973, he went backpacking in England, where he eventually decided to settle. He wrote for the English newspapers The Times and The Independent, as well as supplementing his income by writing travel articles.

He moved back to the United States in 1995. His first travel book, The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America, was published in 1989. His other books include I'm a Stranger Here Myself, In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words, Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe, Made in America, The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson's African Diary, A Short History of Nearly Everything, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, Walk About, and Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery, the Genius of the Royal Society. A Walk in the Woods was adapted into a movie starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.

Bryson's titles, The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain, Notes from a Small Island and Neither Here Nor There made the New York Times bestseller list in 2016.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

YA-- Bryson traces the English language from the Neanderthal man of 30,000 years ago to the present. Interestingly, he contrasts the language as it developed simultaneously in various locations. He also presents examples of the evolution of words and their spellings. The book is well researched and informative; the thorough index will aid novices in the exploration of the language.-- Diane Goheen, Topeka West High School, KS (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

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) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

1. The World's Language	p. 11
2. The Dawn of Language	p. 21
3. Global Language	p. 35
4. The First Thousand Years	p. 46
5. Where Words Come From	p. 67
6. Pronunciation	p. 84
7. Varieties of English	p. 99
8. Spelling	p. 117
9. Good English and Bad	p. 134
10. Order out of Chaos	p. 147
11. Old World, New World	p. 161
12. English as a World Language	p. 179
13. Names	p. 196
14. Swearing	p. 214
15. Wordplay	p. 225
16. The Future of English	p. 239
Select Bibliography	p. 247
Index	p. 257

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Publisher's Weekly Review

Table of Contents