Charity's review
The Mother Tongue
by Bill Bryson
bill bryson is dreamy. i wish he would put out more. books, i mean. his 'the mother tongue' on audiobooks was perfectly digestible.
Charity's review
The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
Charity's review
rating:
bookshelves:
nonfiction
Did you know that drumstick was coined in the 19th century because polite society could not bring itself to utter the word leg? Or that Shakespeare gave us no less than 1700 new words including barefaced, frugal, dwindle, and summit?
Bill Bryson, an American transplanted to England, traces the history of English on both sides of the Atlantic. He explains the evolutionary accident that altered the human larynx and enabled us to speak. He traces the origins of English's naughtiest words, and offers a paean to that extraordinarily versatile American contribution to the language: O.K.
A smart, funny, irreverent overview of English. Although, I strongly feel that some parts were much more engaging than others. And, unfortunately, this book is pretty dated (pre-internet/World Wide Web), so many of the statistics are completely inaccurate (in fact, that is the only reason I am giving this book 3 stars instead of 4). However, the extensive research int...more
Bill Bryson, an American transplanted to England, traces the history of English on both sides of the Atlantic. He explains the evolutionary accident that altered the human larynx and enabled us to speak. He traces the origins of English's naughtiest words, and offers a paean to that extraordinarily versatile American contribution to the language: O.K.
A smart, funny, irreverent overview of English. Although, I strongly feel that some parts were much more engaging than others. And, unfortunately, this book is pretty dated (pre-internet/World Wide Web), so many of the statistics are completely inaccurate (in fact, that is the only reason I am giving this book 3 stars instead of 4). However, the extensive research int...more
bill bryson is dreamy. i wish he would put out more. books, i mean. his 'the mother tongue' on audiobooks was perfectly digestible.