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3rd out of 183 books
—
24 voters
The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language
by
Melvyn Bragg
A landmark history of the English language detailing how and where it began 1,500 years ago and how it evolved to become the tongue of some two billion people worldwide.
Paperback, 322 pages
Published
September 14th 2006
by Arcade Publishing
(first published 2003)
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When reading this review, please bear in mind that I have a doctorate in Linguistics with a specialty in history of English and sociolinguistics (also schizophrenic speech--which may be relevant here if Bragg is as delusional as he sounds).
Bragg says that Anglo Saxon intended to become the most dominant language in the world. Of course, Anglo Saxon was a Germanic dialect in the 7th century, a declined language and totally unrecognizable as English unless one is taught it by a trained scholar. In...more
Bragg says that Anglo Saxon intended to become the most dominant language in the world. Of course, Anglo Saxon was a Germanic dialect in the 7th century, a declined language and totally unrecognizable as English unless one is taught it by a trained scholar. In...more
Any user of the English language really owes it to themselves, at some point in their lives, to listen carefully to this!
It's also available in book form, which I've never read, and was adapted into a multipart TV series for the BBC (also presented in the past on the History International channel).
Melvyn Bragg, being also a well-known TV presenter in the UK, presented the TV adaptation himself, and lends much richness to it. For the audio CD version, Robert Powell delivered an unabridged present...more
It's also available in book form, which I've never read, and was adapted into a multipart TV series for the BBC (also presented in the past on the History International channel).
Melvyn Bragg, being also a well-known TV presenter in the UK, presented the TV adaptation himself, and lends much richness to it. For the audio CD version, Robert Powell delivered an unabridged present...more
I really wanted to like this book especially since I enjoyed "Mother Tongue" By Bill Bryson so much. But at times this book has some real low points. I am frustrated by many of the linguistic theories proposed about the future of English and I disagree with most of them. I strongly believe that now that English has become the Language of business it will not only become increasingly difficult to dislodge it as the global language, but the need to learn it to communicate with even non-native Engl...more
A history of the development of the English language from the 5th Century to the present, told as if English was a person and this was its biography.
So, this is a good example of why you shouldn't try to turn a "popular science" TV series into a book. The biography device probably works on the screen with an energetic and passionate presenter, but it falls flat when you read it. The passion is still there, but the overall effect is a little juvenile. Add to that the apparent lack of an editor wi...more
So, this is a good example of why you shouldn't try to turn a "popular science" TV series into a book. The biography device probably works on the screen with an energetic and passionate presenter, but it falls flat when you read it. The passion is still there, but the overall effect is a little juvenile. Add to that the apparent lack of an editor wi...more
I devoured this book. Absolutely fascinating.
Popularly-accessible works on linguistics are rare enough that I'm inclined to rate them highly just for existing. This one seems to be an oddball companion to a BBC documentary, but I'll take what I can get.
It covers the history of English through its contact with (and typically, battle for domination with) the Celtic language, the Scandinavian languages (during the Danish occupation of Britain), French (during the Norman occupation of Britain). When Britain finally returned to independent rule...more
It covers the history of English through its contact with (and typically, battle for domination with) the Celtic language, the Scandinavian languages (during the Danish occupation of Britain), French (during the Norman occupation of Britain). When Britain finally returned to independent rule...more
This book started slowly (try as I might, I just can't get excited about Vikings and Celts), but after it picked up, it was absolutely terrific. The English language is the main character in this non-fiction book, and the author cheers it along with zest. Through wars, empires, printing presses, and social revolutions, English always wins.
I especially loved it in audio format because the reader was able to demonstrated the different pronunciations and accents. I'm not sure that all of the accent...more
I especially loved it in audio format because the reader was able to demonstrated the different pronunciations and accents. I'm not sure that all of the accent...more
This book presents a brief and interesting overview of the history of the English language in a fairly readable fashion. On the whole it is a good introduction, as long as you take certain things with a grain of salt. I think that the lists of words and examples on the whole were useful to understand the story. However, some of the examples given were either dubious etymologies (e.g. citing Joseph McCoy as the definitive inspiration for "the real McCoy") or were simply popular folk etymologies t...more
Full review here
http://www.yourneedtoread.blogspot.co...
I have been recommending this book to everyone. I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, but this book was fascinating. It tells the story of how our language evolved from ancient Sanskrit up through the centuries into what we speak today. I know that sounds boring, but if you like history, you will love this book.
One of the reasons I loved this book is because I actually listened to it on the audio version. If you have never heard Old English s...more
http://www.yourneedtoread.blogspot.co...
I have been recommending this book to everyone. I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, but this book was fascinating. It tells the story of how our language evolved from ancient Sanskrit up through the centuries into what we speak today. I know that sounds boring, but if you like history, you will love this book.
One of the reasons I loved this book is because I actually listened to it on the audio version. If you have never heard Old English s...more
I read, and greatly enjoyed, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English last year, and was a bit worried that The Adventure of English would be highly repetitive. They are, however, very different books, the first being much more philological and the second being cultural.
While Bragg's work is generally good and enjoyable, there were some issues. For one thing, there is the notion that the US has fewer distinct accents/dialects than Britain. We have just as many, but because we'...more
While Bragg's work is generally good and enjoyable, there were some issues. For one thing, there is the notion that the US has fewer distinct accents/dialects than Britain. We have just as many, but because we'...more
Audiobook.
Audio: Excellent. Clear, crisp, enunciation. Narrator has a British accent, (and why not, the author is English), and was VERY easily understood by this American. This book is a SPECIAL TREAT as it is actually BETTER TO LISTEN to it than to read it. This is because of the innumerable authentic-sounding pronunciations of English word derivations and origins throughout history. Even if the words are spelled phonetically in the book (and I don't know if they are), I say you cannot beat ha...more
Audio: Excellent. Clear, crisp, enunciation. Narrator has a British accent, (and why not, the author is English), and was VERY easily understood by this American. This book is a SPECIAL TREAT as it is actually BETTER TO LISTEN to it than to read it. This is because of the innumerable authentic-sounding pronunciations of English word derivations and origins throughout history. Even if the words are spelled phonetically in the book (and I don't know if they are), I say you cannot beat ha...more
This book is written by the host of one of my favorite radio programs. It has a lot of interesting information about the history of the English language from its emergence in 5-6th century England to its revival in the 16th century, through the Great Vowell Shift which makes English spelling so illogical to the spread of English in the British empire, its adoption as the language of North America, India, Australia, the West Indies to its creolization and alteration in the mouths of ever-increasi...more
It's been a long time since I enjoyed a book this much. I was already pretty familiar with the author from the BBC podcast, In Our Time. I've long been impressed by Bragg's ability to discuss a wide variety of topics with intelligence spanning humanities, social sciences, history, math and natural sciences, but I hadn't noticed until recently that he is an author and most of his books seems to be on topics surrounding the English language.
Bragg traces the development of English from a minor Germ...more
Bragg traces the development of English from a minor Germ...more
1 like · like · see review
Apr 16, 2007
taarak
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Any speaker of English
Shelves:
robbarrettsaudiobookshelf
Best book I've read about the origins of the English language.
This is the remarkable story of the English language; from its beginnings as a minor guttural Germanic dialect to its position today as a truly established global language. The Adventure of English is not only an enthralling story of power, religion, and trade, but also the story of people, and how their lives continue to change the extraordinary language that is English.
This is the remarkable story of the English language; from its beginnings as a minor guttural Germanic dialect to its position today as a truly established global language. The Adventure of English is not only an enthralling story of power, religion, and trade, but also the story of people, and how their lives continue to change the extraordinary language that is English.
A delightful, erudite and informative read, even though I happened to spend a whole term studying the history of the English language before. It discusses English of the British Isles with a special place for Welsh and Scottish varieties, of America, Wild West, India, West Indies and Australia. A wonderful book to be read many times, with the following conclusion:
‘An adventure should have an ending but there is no conclusion to the astounding and moving journey of the English language, from its...more
‘An adventure should have an ending but there is no conclusion to the astounding and moving journey of the English language, from its...more
1 like · like · see review
Melvyn Bragg is a broadcaster and a novelist. 'The Adventure of English', is not, as the previous reviewer points out, an academic exploration of the linguistic development of the language, but it makes no pretense of being one.
It is, for the most part, a chronological look at the evolution of the language we have come to know as English from a user's perspective. Particularly from a writer's perspective. Many illustrations of his points come in the form of quotations from prose, poetry and cor...more
It is, for the most part, a chronological look at the evolution of the language we have come to know as English from a user's perspective. Particularly from a writer's perspective. Many illustrations of his points come in the form of quotations from prose, poetry and cor...more
I don't think I've read a non-fiction book in a long time that I have enjoyed as much as this one. There were a number of times I wanted to write a review as I was reading, but settled for telling every one I could about how enjoyable it was as I went along.
I have done a double-dose on this book. First I got the audiobook, read by Robert Powell. His reading is fantastic, but even though he read so well, I found I was wanting to SEE the Old English text that seemed to flow effortlessly from him,...more
I have done a double-dose on this book. First I got the audiobook, read by Robert Powell. His reading is fantastic, but even though he read so well, I found I was wanting to SEE the Old English text that seemed to flow effortlessly from him,...more
1 like · like · see review
Oh man, for a language fan like me this is like gardening (for people who love gardening). It's fascinating to trace my words, even these words, back through the centuries watching as they were picked up from different places and in different contexts along the way. What a cool language we speak! How flexible, pliable and bendy our tongue!
But seriously, this could easily have been a snooze-a-thon. However, Melvyn Bragg's enthusiasm for this particular linguistic history is contagious, and with...more
But seriously, this could easily have been a snooze-a-thon. However, Melvyn Bragg's enthusiasm for this particular linguistic history is contagious, and with...more
There are an abundance of fascinating facts to be learned from this book. The "adventure" of the English language is recounted in an easy to follow, chronological manner. The only thing I didn't like about this book was the long list of words that Bragg often included as examples. I especially enjoyed reading about Dr. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary and the comic and often incorrect definitions he came up with. For example: "Oats: a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotl...more
This is a review of the Audible Audio book edition.
An excellent book for anyone with a passion of the English language. As with much of Melvyn Bragg's writing, he interviews etymology, history, and small biographies together into a tapestry that appeals to the language lover immensly. This book is certainly not without its flaws: there are quite a few occasions were he provides long lists of words coming from other languages when only a few would suffice, and the begining dragged on quite a few...more
An excellent book for anyone with a passion of the English language. As with much of Melvyn Bragg's writing, he interviews etymology, history, and small biographies together into a tapestry that appeals to the language lover immensly. This book is certainly not without its flaws: there are quite a few occasions were he provides long lists of words coming from other languages when only a few would suffice, and the begining dragged on quite a few...more
I had a great linguistics class in grad school taught by a visiting professor from Princeton. This book could have been the print version of his lectures. While I thought the early chapters were a trifle dull (I never could make myself love Beowulf), I loved everything from Chaucer on. The author shows, among other things, how writers like Chaucer, Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, and Mark Twain impacted the language, how slavery and colonization added to our vocabulary, and how the spread of Englis...more
This is a pretty good history of the English language, written from the point of view of a speaker of British English (or as the book puts it "English English") though it pays a great deal of attention to American English and a fair amount of attention to other Englishes in the part of the book covering the past couple of centuries.
I enjoyed it, but thought that what was there could have been a tad shorter, and that we were missing a good long chapter about the Great Vowel Shift, which was just...more
I enjoyed it, but thought that what was there could have been a tad shorter, and that we were missing a good long chapter about the Great Vowel Shift, which was just...more
Inspired by my students' research papers, I took a detour into the world of non-fiction and indulged a fascination of mine: English. Like many readers, writers, and teachers, I have a love for the written word and have always enjoyed etymology. Bragg's research tells stories covering centuries of growth in my native tongue. I came to this book via audio and truly was impressed in the reader's ability to capture accent and dialect from English worldwide. There were times, however, that I felt I w...more
Feb 04, 2013
Mark
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in Language
This book reminded me a great deal of Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue," which I read back in 2009, and really enjoyed. While it's been a some time since then, my sense is that Bryson was wittier (no surprise), but that Bragg was both more thorough and more broad in his coverage. I enjoyed it a great deal, but then I love language anyway. Bragg looks more carefully at the continuing permutations of English in those areas of the world where English continues to grow as the lingua franca of the world,...more
A gem. I listened to the audiobook, superbly narrated by the actor Robert Powell. The book tells the fascinating story of the relentless growth of a polyglot mongrel language, never ashamed to borrow or steal words from every language it encountered. Essentially, that seems to have been its greatest strength, insulating it from attack, and allowing it to evolve into the marvellous tongue of Chaucer, Tindale, Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Dickens, Twain, Wodehouse, Waugh and Tolkien, to say nothing of...more
Fun, but not as good as I was expecting. The earlier chapters were much more interesting, as he described the dynamics between Frisian, Old Norse, Latin, Norman, and the other languages which influenced Old and Middle English. But as the book wore on, the chapters became more boring - several of the chapters read more like dry lists of words and etymologies than a narrative. Also, take Bragg with a grain of salt - one thing that disappointed me was his perpetuation of the false etymology of the...more
This is a well-written book which dicusses the origins, development, evolution (and sometimes de-evolution) of the English language from its inception in England in the 5th Century AD. Much of the book discusses the etemology of English - over the centuries it has drawn words, phrases, accents from many different languages, including Latin, Greek, French, German, Indian (India), African and many others. It is a cosmopolitan language. As I began, I thought the book might be a bore, but I founding...more
I've always been interested in history, but I didn't think I was that interested in language. I took a gamble buying this book, and its one of my best reads in recent years.
The whole book hangs around the notion that English is almost a living organism; evolving and in some cases 'going to war' with other languages in order to dominate.
The book is meticulously researched. He often rapidly tosses out interesting facts about word origins, as if they are loose change, instead of using a handful o...more
The whole book hangs around the notion that English is almost a living organism; evolving and in some cases 'going to war' with other languages in order to dominate.
The book is meticulously researched. He often rapidly tosses out interesting facts about word origins, as if they are loose change, instead of using a handful o...more
I very much enjoyed this book, especially on the heels of Bryson's "At Home." There is a fair amount of overlap- both being about life and language in ancient-to-modern Britain. Bragg anthropomorphizes English quite a bit and the book reads like a biography. It is occationally awkward, like when Bragg wonders what English thought about something. Nothing. English had no opinion. But it is a minor quibble.
I recommend listening to the audio version. Bragg has lists of words and it is wonderful to...more
I recommend listening to the audio version. Bragg has lists of words and it is wonderful to...more
A delightful read or listen (I loved the audio version) as to the origins and evolution of the grammar, vocabularies, pronunciations of our 'mother tongue'. Melvyn Bragg reveals the cross-currents, merges, struggles, spread, and lasting endurance of English over the past 1500 years and provides insights into where it may yet lead. He provides an easily read treatise of the great writers, authors, poets, and thinkers who created the framework of our language and the peoples that refined it. The c...more
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Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg, FRSL, FRTS (born 6 October 1939) is an English author, broadcaster and media personality who, aside from his many literary endeavours, is perhaps most recognised for his work on The South Bank Show.
Bragg is a prolific novelist and writer of non-fiction, and has written a number of television and film screenplays. Some of his early television work was in collaboration wit...more
More about Melvyn Bragg...
Bragg is a prolific novelist and writer of non-fiction, and has written a number of television and film screenplays. Some of his early television work was in collaboration wit...more
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Apr 17, 2013 02:04pm
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