The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way,9780380715435

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

by
Edition: Revised
ISBN13: 9780380715435
ISBN10: 0380715430
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2010-05-06
Publisher(s): HarperCollins Publications
List Price: $17.99

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Customer Reviews

A book worth rereading  April 23, 2011
by
Rating StarRating StarRating StarRating StarRating Star

Everything Bryson has written is perfect, but I recommend The Mother Tongue to the newcomer because it charms and endears from the first: "More than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest, it seems, try to. Bill Bryson is able to deliver entertainment and education in the same package with great results. I learned a lot and enjoyed it! It's a cheap textbook and worthy to be read.


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The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way: 5 out of 5 stars based on 1 user reviews.

Summary

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.

"Diverting and richly anecdotal...Bryson is an unalloyed fan who relishes the language's versatility, verb hoard and vast vocabulary." -Robert Taylor, Boston Globe

"Vastly informative and vastly entertaining...A scholarly and fascinating book." -Fred S. Holley, Los Angeles Times

Table of Contents

1. THE WORLD'S LANGUAGE
11(10)
2. THE DAWN OF LANGUAGE
21(14)
3. GLOBAL LANGUAGE
35(11)
4. THE FIRST THOUSAND YEARS
46(21)
5. WHERE WORDS COME FROM
67(17)
6. PRONUNCIATION
84(15)
7. VARIETIES OF ENGLISH
99(18)
8. SPELLING
117(17)
9. GOOD ENGLISH AND BAD
134(13)
10. ORDER OUT OF CHAOS
147(14)
11. OLD WORLD, NEW WORLD
161(18)
12. ENGLISH AS A WORLD LANGUAGE
179(17)
13. NAMES
196(18)
14. SWEARING
214(11)
15. WORDPLAY
225(14)
16. THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH
239(8)
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 247(10)
INDEX 257

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