The Mother Tongue

Very amusing book about the English language, its origins and development, its many eccentricities and the differences between B E and AmE. I found the chapters on spelling and grammar really funny. Now the book, published in 1990, appears a bit outdated. One thing I have never doubted is that language changes continuously and the world of global communication and new technology has brought on considerable change.

I had enjoyed "Made in America" so much that I had great expectations for "Mother Tongue" as well... I was really disappointed instead. So many inaccuracies about Italian and other languages I know raise doubts about the accuracy of the rest. The book was published about two decades ago, and in some parts it feels so terribly outdated - it would be very interesting to compare the last chapter's data on Hispanic presence in the US with this year's census!

So, this is the story of English... and written by Bill Bryson... THE Bill Bryson!

Once upon a time, England was home of some civilized Celtic people who adopt Roman culture. But when Rome fell apart, the barbaric Angie and Saxon tribes manageded to cross the sea and conquered Celtic people and replace their language. So the German part of English is mainly Saxon... a language of peasant and ordinary people.

Then, it came Viking people, brought Norse part of language.

And then, came another race of Viking people, but they setteled down in France. They even had a provice name called Normandy in France. So, these French-speaking Normandy people brought French to England as well. For a few hundred years, French is the elegant language in court and palace. English is the langauge of peasant... I don't believe that with such a tight connection, English and French could be such an enemy of each other for so many years, lasting to even nowadays.

Well, one of the reason could be, the Normandy people's French is a Southern dialet, very different from the Paris French. And after so many years in England, Normandy's French was inteligible for French people...

So, this make English having so many synonmies since it mixes the vocabulary of different language origins.

I like Bill Bryson, he is a good writter. But I have to say, his chapter on spelling is absurb.

He spent two pages to descrip Chinese, which are mostly wrong. I have to double check the date of publication. I thought Bill Bryson is contemporary enough not to make this kind of mistakes... Well, this book was published in 1990. Oh, I don't believe that American can be so ignorant even nowadays... despite the fact that there are millions of Chinese in USA.

First of all, what is radical??? Bill mentioned 212 radicals that make Chinese characters... come on! I suppose he means the dictionary "busho". But, Chinese characters are like drawing. Of course there are a lot more than 212 basic structures la! Also, the Chinese writting of small is wrong... I cannot tell what it is if I don't read the English explanation. And, Chinese typewriters are NOT enormous! Gee, Bill is quoting something pre-computer where each character has to be pick up individually that was used in newspaper in the old time. Nowadays, I can type Chinese using English Windows or Mac. And Chinese typing is NOT slow. The Chinese input method I use can type a Chinese word using 6 keystroke at most. I can easily type more than 20 Chinese word a minute, and I am not a quick typist at all. What is totally wrong is: There is no Chinese word with two women and it does not mean quarrel. And three women in Chinese means rape, not gossip. China has adopted Romanized Pinyin system to dennote the pronounciation. So, if a Chinese wants to use alphabet for filing, he is quite free to use it. So, the office won't collapse if the Chinese secretary dies! And, who cares about Scrabble? Is it a lost that you cannot play Scrabble in Chinese... haha... I think Scrabble was invented to force poor English kids to do spelling.

I don't believe Bill can make so many mistakes in two pages. Make me doubtful about the accuracy of his discription of languages other than English.

Entertaining book on English and languages in general. Bryson is his characteristic self: amusing and informed.

I marked this book down one star because I had the feeling that Bryson's facts were a bit dubious. I have since googled this and it seems there are many people who think the book is a little flimsy on the facts. He apparently relies too easily on folk etymology (ordinary people's opinion about the origin of words) which is very entertaining but not correct from a linguistic or factual sense.

I found the chapter dealing with languages like Chinese one of the most fascinating only to learn that some native speakers thought Bryson's "facts" about Chinese to be very inaccurate!

Still, a very entertaining book (four stars!) but beware that Bryson is no linguist and while very amusing and enjoyable, his stories about language need to be taken with a large dose of scepticism! The book is, however, a very fun starting point for anyone exploring language as an exciting subject.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this book for me was how it did shed light on the constant development and change in English. Rules of grammar today were not there yesterday, and yesterday's rules are often discarded. No-one who reads a book like this can ever again be confident that there is one and only one "correct" usage or spelling in English - language changes constantly and we sometimes need to relax on the "correctness" of things in case we miss out on the creative opportunities presented by bending the rules a little. Or a lot. Much of what is English today started out as slang, a mistake, or pure invention (as in the case of Shakespeare who invented more words out of thin air than anyone!).

Highly recommended for its entertainment value.

The paperback binding of this edition is nothing special, the paper average pulp quality, though not prone to cracking the glued spine if due care is taken.