If you have an awareness or even a curiosity of words (for example do you like to read Shakespeare?) this book is for you. Too bad even Bill Bryson couldn't make this terribly entertaining. So, Bill Bryson + cheap equals insta-buy for me, apparently. Bryson makes this not only a learning experience but lots of fun! The peculiarities of language are very very interesting. The Mother Tongue is the story of the evolution of the English language, from its humble beginnings as a Germanic tongue to what it has evolved into over the centuries. What is actually in the context of this novel? The history of English linguistic form studied by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence (about 700 A.D.) and then tracing its transmission, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages and reaching thoughtful conclusions about just why we talk in the manner which we do.

A great read or if you prefer a stupendous listen to. Thus, what would have been leaden, is in fact, a most titillating and intriguing journey through etymology. Now, if that all sounds dull, well it could be but for the fact this is written by Bill Bryson. Los Angeles TimesWith dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language. He got a job at a psychiatric hospital in England, where he met a nurse there. He attended Drake University but dropped out after two years and went backpacking in Europe. Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, IA in 1951.

It then compares its findings to the observable and proves its conjectures as apparent from the observable. Vastly informative and vastly entertainingA scholarly and fascinating book. Bryson, Bill, The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Don’t get me wrong this book is scientifically written meaning it takes data accumulates it and proposes a point concerning language and its maturation over the centuries. Bryson’s statements in the book, “anguage is more fashion than science.” That is the bottom line, or the more ethereal learning from the book.

The mother tongue by bill bryson