The Mother Tongue
English and How It Got That Way
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · October 23, 2001
“Vastly informative and vastly entertaining…A scholarly and fascinating book.” —Los Angeles Times With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language.
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- Who it’s for
- Follow English through its oddities and resilience in a history that pairs insight with wit.
- Themes
- History of English, Language quirks, Evolution of English
- Genres
- Word Origins, Language Humor, Historical Linguistics
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Start with this bookAbout this book
“Vastly informative and vastly entertaining…A scholarly and fascinating book.” —Los Angeles Times With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language.
Continue reading
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.
Language, With Laughs
Follow English through its oddities and resilience in a history that pairs insight with wit.
Come here for
- The curious history and eccentricities of English
- A witty look at how language works
Expect
- Scholarly detail with an entertaining touch
- Stories spanning speech, swearing, and English’s growth
Where it sits
| Word Origins | 46% |
|---|---|
| Language Humor | 42% |
| Historical Linguistics | 35% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- History Resources
- World History
- Social History
- Humor Essays
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Humor & Trivia
- Creative Writing
- Historical Linguistics
- Psycholinguistics
- Authors
- Bill Bryson
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- October 23, 2001
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- History of English · Language quirks · Evolution of English
- Reading lane
- History Resources
Around this book
- The World's Language — Part 1: The Ubiquity of EnglishAn essay from Did The Research. This installment begins a detailed fact-check of The Mother Tongue, explaining its method and examining claims from the book’s opening chapter.
- Bill Bryson: American Linguist in BritainAn interview from Los Angeles Times. A profile with Bryson’s own comments on his fascination with English and the research behind The Mother Tongue.