Bill bryson english the mother tongue5/29/2023 ![]() ![]() These chapters serve best to indicate how fantastically complicated English is and its inherent contradictions which are the bane of any foreign English learner’s life. Mother Tongue is not just about the history of English though – the books makes a decent attempt to cover the structure and logic of the English language too, and whilst these sections can become quite dry, Bryson knows the value of dropping in a judiciously timed gag at the most mentally challenging points. For example, many of the erudite definitions in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, arguably the most ambitious and unrivalled linguistic work in existence, were later found to have been supplied by a long-term inmate of Broadmoor, England’s premier prison for the criminally insane. ![]() Given that English is one of the richest languages in the world because it happily brings words from other languages and makes them its own, the history of its evolution is a riot of anecdotes which Bryson has evidently enjoyed unearthing. ![]() It’s the sort of complex subject that needs the lightness of Bryson’s touch to give an obviously affectionate and enthusiastic overview not only of its origins and uses but also its eccentricities. ![]() Mother Tongue is one of Bill Bryson’s earlier books and a superbly manageable and amusing treatise on the English language – where it came from, what it’s doing and where it’s going. ![]()
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