eShop USA > Books > The Mother Tongue
The Mother Tongue
List Price: $14.95Our Price: $10.17 You Save: $4.78 (32%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 420.9
EAN: 9780380715435
ISBN: 0380715430
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: September 01, 1991
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: September 01, 1991
Studio: Harper Perennial
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Editorial 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.
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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Amazing!
This book is a notch above Bryson's other books. And that is saying A LOT! It is compelling, very witty, and overall memorable. It certainly piqued by interested in the English language and linguistics in general. Do yourself a favour, and get this book. You will not be disappointed with this well-researched tome that Bryson produced here.
Rating:  - "The Mother Tongue" -- Factual Mistakes and Forced Jokes
Mr. Bryson's "The Mother Tongue" is an easy read, but unfortunately it contains many factual mistakes and, as one other reviewer put it so well, "sloppy scholarship". I am a native speaker of German and I wish he would have gotten some help from a German linguist for his comparisons of English with German.
My problem with the book started with the "Acknowledgments" where Mr Bryson writes "certain passages in this book originally appeared in somewhat altered form in TWA Ambassador ... Read More
Rating: - A tribute to the English language
This book brings to the forefront the richness of the English language. English is my cherished second language and I feel heavily indebted to it. English has allowed me to travel to some countries where I would have remained almost incommunicado with my native Spanish. Also, English has allowed me access to certain books that deal with topics that are not available in Spanish written books (to my knowledge).
To read this book was a pleasurable experience to me. The book is entertaining, ... Read More
Rating: - 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?
Rating: - candy for English nerds
The fascinating, humorous, and engaging tale of how the English language grew from the peasant amalgamation of French and German (an easy, simple, and straightforward language without gendered articles) to a multimillion-dollar language spoken the world-over. Chockfull of intriguing trivia (why we can choke also is why we can talk) and important explanations (why our language has more flexibility, more words, and more intricacy than most others, but also why its spelling and grammar is so illogically insane). ... Read More
Related Categories:
| |
 |
