The Mother Tongue

I bought this book because I study languages and I thought perhaps Bryson would offer some insight into my own language. He did a lot more than that. Bryson is a gifted writer and he obviously knows how to research his topic. He carefully weaves the history of English into idiosyncracies about present-day English, while referencing other languages through the entire book. You can learn about dialects and creoles, about the origins of many common words, and ponder Bryson's theory about the future of American English, all in the same book. My mind was constantly filled with anecdotes, most of which are very helpful. This book is simply fascinating because its topic is something we use and experience every day-- English, our mother tongue.

I never read "The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way" till its end. Rather, I started reading it to write a research paper while taking an English course in Boston and came back to Brazil before having read half of it. Yet, no more than a couple of pages were needed to capture my attention in such a way that I would never stop close the book.

Bryson manages to give not only an objective description of the historical development of the English language, but he also really tells you the story of it, as if it were a novel that makes you wonder what will come next. His theories and impressions are not imposed as a scientifical work. They are suggested and they arouse the reader's interest in the matter. It makes you start thinking about the language, the same one you use every day, probably without even paying much attention to it. It made me think about it -- and English is not even my Mother Tongue.

The word "linguistics" may sound a bit too complicated or abstract for most of the people. Linguistics books may not always be best-sellers. But in "The Mother Tongue: (...)" Bill Bryson makes things differently. He shows you how deep the language lies within you by making you love it, giving you, little by little, small pieces of history disguised as characters of a page-turning novel.

This book is a history of the English language, with particularly interesting chapters on the beginnings of language, wordplay, pronunciation, swearing, spelling, varieties, and just about everything you would ever want to know about our mother tongue. The only question I still have that Bryson was not able to answer was why was the language of the Angles adopted in England, rather than the language of the dominant group, the Saxons? Bryson says that we just don't know why.

I never thought a book on English (and languages, in general) would get me to laugh out loud, but this one did many times. For example, Bryson writes that "some languages have words that we may be pleased to do without," such as the German word "schadenfreude" (which means "taking delight in the misfortune of others") or how about "sgiomlaireachd" (meaning "dropping in at mealtimes" in Scottish Gaelic)? The delight that Bryson takes in languages is, well, simply wonderful: He writes that strozzapreti is a pasta in Italy and means "strangled priests" and that vermicelli means "little worms." Or how about that "A ydycg wedi talu a dodi eich tocyn yn y golwg?" is Welsh for "Did you remember to pay?" Bryson is also quick to give opinions, such as: "There is no logical reason not to split an infinitive" and "Sentences [can] end with a preposition." Then he tell us the sources of these "dubious" strictures.

Bryson is intrigued about where English words come from, and they come from many other languages: Scandinavian (skull, leg, husband, rotten, their), Norman French (jury, traitor, marriage, govern), native American ("hoochinoo" became hooch!), Mexican-Spanish (rancher), German (dollar), etc. In fact, only about 1% of our words are Old English ones (but they include man, wife, and love) we discover. Where do our words come from? Well, about 1,700 were invented by Shakespeare alone, including the following words: critical, monumental, castigate, majestic, obscene, excellent, and lonely. Also quite interesting is how English words have changed in the last millennium: For example, to Chaucer a "girl" meant any young person, "brave" implied cowardice (which "bravado" still does), and that "knight" was pronounced something like "kuh-nee-guh-tuh.". And new words keep coming ("apolitical" is only 50 years old)! And, of course, we learn that English has influenced other languages greatly: in China, conversations occur on the "te le fung," a Ukrainian goes to the barber for a "herkot," and a Japanese commuter is crammed into a subway car during "rushawa" (rush hour)!

And where else would I have discovered such facts as these?: that there are 176 names for dust balls under the bed; that there are 17 different pronunciations for the word "house" in Northern England; that there are no Chinese crossword puzzles (because there is no alphabet); that Kennedy means "ugly head" in Gaelic; that the Japanese, Malayans, and American Indians do not have have any swear words in their native languages; that an anagram for "The Morse Code" is "Here come dots"; that a couple of centuries ago, many words could be spelled two or more ways, but today there are only three such words in North America (ax/axe, gray/grey, and inquire/enquire); that the Pilgrims were among the first generation in England who said "has" rather than "hath" and "runs" instead of "runneth"; and that "O.K." is "arguably America's single greatest gift to international discourse, able to serve as an adjective, verb, noun, interjection, and adverb," with obscure origins that may be someone's initials (Martin Van Buren's nickname, "Old Kinderhook"), a popular snack (Orrins-Kendall crackers), or words in Finnish ("oikea"), Haitian ("Aux Cayes," a source of rum), or Choctaw ("okeh"), or perhaps a contraction of "oll korrect" (which is how Andrew Jackson spelled this expression)!

This is a book to treasure!

I wish Bill Bryson was my teacher in high school. He takes a tedious subject, language, and makes it fun. This book is about everything you wondered about but didn't know who to ask about. I've owned it for almost ten years. I've read and reread it at least a dozen times...usually before lending it to a friend. The Mother Tongue is the perfect addition to any nightstand.

I'm a junior in high school and picked up this book because I have a huge love for words, writing, and the English language. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and found Bryson to be very witty and entertaining. After reading many of the reviews here, I realized that some of the information may not be exactly correct, but it was still excellent in its context. Maybe Bryson could publish another edition with the corrections mentioned from your reviews. This would be extremely beneficial. Many of my friends stereotyped the book as "a boring history of English" before they ever read it. But after presenting them with a few of the humourous passages, they were delighted and begged me to loan them the book. I decided that if people could be excited about a book just because it was funny and yet learn so much about their mother tongue, it should be required reading. My favorite part was learning how some of the curious idioms of America came about. I had never heard of Cockney rhyming slang, and found it absolutely delightful. Well, as for myself I give it five stars, with or without the mistakes. Are we not all human?