Tuesday, 19 April 2016 11:08 pm
Book Review: The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
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deckardcanineI had just vaguely heard of Bill Bryson, probably from seeing his name on my parents' bookshelves. It figures that they would recommend one of his most linguistic publications to me. They know me well.
This moderate-length book covers a fair amount of just about every topic you can think of with regard to the English language, in addition to tidbits on many other languages. BTW, according to the book, it was "titbits" first; prissy Americans changed it. Sensitive readers may skip the late chapter on swearing.
Bryson, who has lived in both the U.S. and the U.K., mentions a number of things I'd learned before, a few of which I still doubt. (How can more than half the states have names from native languages? "Indiana" doesn't count.) Fortunately, almost every paragraph contains information that was new to me, and almost every page surprised me. For example, I had no idea of the key advantages of the Chinese writing system, however much they pale next to the disadvantages. A resurrected Confucius, despite major difficulty with modern speech, could read a modern newspaper without guidance!
Don't think it's all dry like an encyclopedia, either. Bryson likes to discuss the delicious ironies, sloppiness, and other peculiarities, having his own way with words. Sometimes when he's not exactly disclosing anything new, he still gets me thinking, as about the conundrum of estimating how many words are in English, much less how many we're likely to know.
To my mind, the biggest problem with the book is its age. Published in 1990, when the so-called World Wide Web barely existed, its facts and figures become less useful upon moving from history to the "present." I should have foreseen that Bryson would refer to Dan Quayle's verbal fumbling.
Nevertheless, if you care about linguistics as much as I do, you're bound to get something out of it. Unlike many books I choose to read, it never felt like a chore. That's a feat for nonfiction.
Now I've returned to a book I actually started before picking up The Mother Tongue. It's Myst: The Book of Ti'ana, which I rescued from a giveaway shelf. I don't expect much quality, given its basis on a computer game, but I got curious and wanted to vary my reading.
This moderate-length book covers a fair amount of just about every topic you can think of with regard to the English language, in addition to tidbits on many other languages. BTW, according to the book, it was "titbits" first; prissy Americans changed it. Sensitive readers may skip the late chapter on swearing.
Bryson, who has lived in both the U.S. and the U.K., mentions a number of things I'd learned before, a few of which I still doubt. (How can more than half the states have names from native languages? "Indiana" doesn't count.) Fortunately, almost every paragraph contains information that was new to me, and almost every page surprised me. For example, I had no idea of the key advantages of the Chinese writing system, however much they pale next to the disadvantages. A resurrected Confucius, despite major difficulty with modern speech, could read a modern newspaper without guidance!
Don't think it's all dry like an encyclopedia, either. Bryson likes to discuss the delicious ironies, sloppiness, and other peculiarities, having his own way with words. Sometimes when he's not exactly disclosing anything new, he still gets me thinking, as about the conundrum of estimating how many words are in English, much less how many we're likely to know.
To my mind, the biggest problem with the book is its age. Published in 1990, when the so-called World Wide Web barely existed, its facts and figures become less useful upon moving from history to the "present." I should have foreseen that Bryson would refer to Dan Quayle's verbal fumbling.
Nevertheless, if you care about linguistics as much as I do, you're bound to get something out of it. Unlike many books I choose to read, it never felt like a chore. That's a feat for nonfiction.
Now I've returned to a book I actually started before picking up The Mother Tongue. It's Myst: The Book of Ti'ana, which I rescued from a giveaway shelf. I don't expect much quality, given its basis on a computer game, but I got curious and wanted to vary my reading.