The mother tongue

by Lancelot Hogben

Language.

Genres: Language, Linguistics, Nonfiction

294 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Paul Bond]

Just a shout-out for THE MOTHER TONGUE by Lancelot Hogben. Published in 1964 by Secker & Warburg. Not to be confused with Bill Bryson's similarly-titled work which claims to compile the history and origins of the English language's various quirks. Professor Hogben's aim is to show how the best use can be made of our hybrid linguistic heritage. On the one hand, we have been gifted a broad basis of grammar and vocabulary from Low German settlers and Scandinavian conquerors and immigrants which serves as a passport to any of the contemporary Teutonic languages, in particular Dutch, German, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. On the other hand, through the Roman and Norman conquests and the influence of monastic and scientific teaching, we have also acquired Latin vocabulary which is closely related to French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, plus Greek. Chapter 4 "Family Likeness Among Languages" contains a "Language Museum" giving a straight read-across from Dutch to Swedish to German to Swedish to Danish, then from French to Portugues to Spanish to Italian followed by the similarities in Welsh, Breton, Cornish and Gaelic. As TIME magazine put it: 'The word is cat in English. In Danish and Dutch it is kat, in Swedish katt, in German katze, in French chat, in Spanish and Portuguese gato, in Italian gatto, in Russian kot, and in Gaelic cat. Such striking linguistic similarities, which occur profusely throughout the Babel of the world, defy coincidence. They suggest that someone who knows one language need never walk blindfold through the labyrinth of a related tongue'. Once you know the techniques, it's easy to figure out that when one Swede says to another 'ska vi gå nu?' she means 'shall we go now?' I was lucky enough to study French, German, Spanish and Latin simultaneously at school, although eventually the teachers spotted I had managed to design a maths-free curriculum for myself, so I was forced to stop Spanish and was re-imprisoned in the maths gulag (I had nothing against the topic, but the teachers made Darth Vader look like a pussy cat; I mean, they actually wore cloaks). I went on to work as a technical author and later press officer and communications director in Italy, France and Belgium. Hogben was mocked by Orwell for his staid writing style. But if you judge a man by the quality of his detractors, Orwell is a great one to have. To Hogben's eternal credit he fought against eugenics at a time when it was horribly popular. Another important book, written with the encouragement of and edited by Lancelot Hogben, 'The Loom Of Language' (which I intend to read) is also about European language. It was written in 1942 by Frederick Bodmer who preceded Chomsky at MIT.

[Lost Owl]

I checked this book out from the library several times before tracking down my own copy to keep. Fascinating and informative.

[Paul Shenton]

This book changed my life and I started on the path of linguistics.