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 no longer accurate (in fact, that is the main reason I am giving this book 4 stars instead of 5). However, the extensive research into the history of the English language makes The Mother Tongue an asset to any reference shelf.

>>When Bryson was discussing the simplification of the English language, I couldn't help but think of the newspeak language in George Orwell's 1984...'no need for good and bad when you can just have good and n  ungoodn.'<<

>>There is a rather funny reference to the horrible orations of George Bush Sr. and Dan Quayle. I wonder what Bryson would have to say about George W. Bush's bumblings.<<

>>With all the 'real English' versus 'Americanisms' talk in the book, I kept thinking about John Cleese's Letter to America, which is absolutely hilarious.<<

Recently I read ‘Made In America’ by Bill Bryson, so I thought it would be appropriate to read ‘Mother Tongue’ as well. Though there was a fair chunk of similar information in both books, ‘Mother Tongue’ is just more relevant. While ‘Made in America’ focused on the history of English in America; ’Mother Tongue’ focuses mainly on the history of English in general. Trying to cover questions like, “Why is there a ‘u’ in four and not in forty?” or “Why do we tell a lie and tell the truth?”

Bill Bryson does a great job of teaching and keeps the book interesting and sometimes humorous. Though the format and the style of the books are similar, I would recommend ‘Mother Tongue’ over ‘Made in America’ simply because the information is more relevant and covers all aspects of the English language.

Recommended for all English geeks, this book will give you a deeper understanding of the language as well as grammatical structures like amphibology. My wife might also be happy to hear that the book covers the topic of onomatopoeia.

November 2021: Went ahead and removed my 4 star rating for this book, which I read and reviewed in 2006. It has since been pointed out, repeatedly, that Bryson is wrong in a staggering number of places in this book, and as I went on to read more of his work, I also realized exactly how racist he is. I don't read or recommend his books anymore.

Here's my original review from 2006, preserved as an artifact of how I was wrong:

Published in 1990, this book is already a little out of date. In its first pages, Bryson reports OED editor Robert Burchfield's theory that American English and British English are drifting apart so rapidly that within two hundred years we won't be able to understand each other. That was a theory made back when cell phones still required a battery the size of an unabridged dictionary, long before the internet became such a large part of the way the world communicates, in a time when you couldn't imagine downloading a British Doctor Who or an American Stargate Atlantis to your iPod. We live in a new world! Unfortunately it's also a world where the Harry Potter books are "translated" for American readers, lest we be too confused by the lingo: "What's this? Harry's eating a biscuit? And wearing a jumper? While battling Fizzolian Snargletoothed Whatsits?! This book is impenetrable!" JK Rowling aside, with communication technology becoming smaller, cheaper, and more powerful, I think we'll still be able to communicate two hundred years down the line. Bryson eventually disagrees with Burchfield for many of the same reasons, though he was unable to cite the internet as a factor.

In that way, this book is showing its age -- the chapter on online language use is, of course, conspicuously absent -- but it's got the history part down. Bryson spends most of his time looking at how we got where we are today. Where English came from, how it got to England, where it went from there. With its in-text references, footnotes, extensive bibliography and index, this book looks almost academic, but Bryson, an American living in England, handles it all with a cheerfully low-key sense of humor -- almost as if Terry Pratchett had turned his eye to grammar -- and even a refreshingly open approach to the word fuck in the chapter on swearing.

My one complaint is that, despite being loosely hung on British and American history, for the most part the book lacks a greater structure and ends up reading like a series of interesting facts. But, hell, they got my attention, and, as it happened, the attention of everyone around me: "Hey! Did you know the Romans had no word for grey?" Since English, as this book proves, is a big crazy mess, I guess Bryson can be excused for not being able to wrangle its history into a more pleasing order. Lack of structure aside, I really enjoyed reading this and will be reading more books by Bryson in the future.

While an accomplished author of many genres, this book is out of character and moves at a ponderous pace compared to most of Bryson’s works. It seems at times a collection of “language oddities” collected over the years, and expanded with repetition. For incidence, how many examples do we need of why “dove” and “dive” differ, or that some English words have dozens of meanings depending on context.

Regardless, if one is looking for a jaunty journey through the English language, this will be an appealing book. Those looking for more of of narrative story form will find other Bryson books to be more to their liking.

Another great Bryson read! Highly recommended.

I like words and understanding where they come from. This book explains a lot of the weird things about English and how we got to the present state of modern English. It's very fun to read. Bill Bryson is a great writer about whatever subject he chooses.

meine rezension hat etwas auf sich warten lassen, weil ich aufgrund meines stressigen alltags nicht so oft zum lesen komme und daher natürlich ein bissl länger brauch bis ich mich zum buch äußern kann ;)

***KURZVERSION FÜR DIE DIES EILIG HABEN***
bryson bringt sein sehr gut recherchiertes wissen auf spannende und witzige weise rüber (mischung us- UND britischem humor [bryson ist ja von den usa nach uk emigriert] - nette kombo!!). keine fade trockene theorie!
für pädagogen: bryson wird gerne (zumindest in österreich, von deutschland weiß ichs nicht) für den englischunterricht der oberstufe empfohlen. ich wäre da jedoch vorsichtiger, da bryson doch recht anspruchsvoll schreibt (fachvokabular!). details in der langfassung.

***UND HIER DIE LANGFASSUNG***
bryson ist einer meiner absoluten lieblingsautoren, eben weil er anspruchsvoll und gleichzeitig unheimlich fesselnd und mit witz schreibt. ich lese ungern "strandlektüren" (ist NICHT abwertend gemeint), bei denen es nichts macht, wenn man dazwischen einmal einnickt, weil man der handlung dann trotzdem noch folgen kann. (das ist zur entspannung ja ganz nett, aber ich lese nicht zur entspannung sondern zur weiterbildung oder horizonterweiterung.) ich lese daher gerne bücher, die mich fordern mit- und nachzudenken - sei es des inhalts oder der sprache wegen. und eine gute portion witz ist auch kein fehler ;)
all das erfüllt das buch:

witz: für alle fans von britischem humor: er hat ihn!! obwohl us-amerikaner - oder vielleicht grad deshalb - hat er genau die richtige mischung an typischem, trockenem, britischem humor. genial!

wissen: bryson war und ist journalist - und mit dem gleichen eifer geht er auch an seine bücher heran: recherchieren, recherchieren, recherchieren! und das merkt man auch - keine leeren theorien, echtes (erlerntes bzw erarbeitetes) wissen.

niveau/anspruch: dazu muss man wissen, dass bryson ein sehr hohes bildungs- und sprachniveau hat, das merkt man natürlich auch in seiner schreibweise. er verwendet (fach)vokabular, das man tw nicht einmal in der muttersprache kennen würde. darauf sollte man sich einstellen.

zum eigentlichen buch - thema sprache(n): ich bin sprachinteressiert und -begeistert - daher ist jedes buch, das sich mit sprache beschäftigt, für mich natürlich interessant. bryson schafft es hier (und das begeistert mich wirklich sehr) den bogen zu spannen zwischen "wo kommt (unsere) sprache her?" über "welche sprachen haben was gemeinsam?" und "was macht unsere sprache leicht/schwer/speziell?". mir ist noch kein (NICHT rein wissenschaftliches) buch untergekommen, dass das alles auf einmal abdeckt.

allerdings ist auch bryson ein kandidat für die selbstverliebtheit zu land, kultur bzw in diesem fall sprache, die ja sowohl in den usa als auch der uk nicht ganz unverbreitet sind.

noch ein punkt zum stichwort schullektüre: ein großer vorteil von bryson's art zu schreiben ist, dass er wirklich pro kapitel ein thema behandelt. das heißt, wenn man sich mit der klasse vielleicht nicht über das ganze buch drübertraut, kann man auch nur einzelne kapitel lesen und das thema evtl. mit anderem input weiterbehandeln. so, oder so: beim lesen mit schülern sollte man sich als lehrer darauf einstellen, viele vokabel nachschauen und besprechen zu müssen, da bryson eben viel gehobenes und auch fachvokabular verwendet. (ich schreibe da aus erfahrung.)
(anmerkung: ich bin sowohl englisch als auch deutsch muttersprachlich (bzw vatersprachlich) aufgewachsen, aber auch ich hab wörter nicht verstanden.)

nichts desto trotz: ich bin alles in allem begeistert und würde das buch sofort wieder lesen und kanns nur weiterempfehlen. wie gesagt: achtung, anspruchsvoll! ;)

When I was in college or grad school I would have done almost anything to have an instructor like Bill Bryson. This man can take almost any subject and turn it into a book that you never want to put down. I drove my wife crazy as I was constantly reading aloud to her passages from the book as his writing style is so good and he imparts information in a manner that is both informative but also fun. I read the book twice on one cruise! If you ever wonder why the English language is so darn strange then you need to read this book.  It should be required reading for anyone who speaks English, or at least tries to. Brilliant!!!!!

Dare I, as a layman with no background in linguistics, type a review on Bill Bryson's wonderful book on the English language? Here goes anyway. This is an interesting, informative and amusing piece of literature (yes, I actually laughed out loud at his section on English grammar, which is more than those jokey novels full of wit and lampoonery have caused me to do). It discusses topics such as origins of our ever evolving English language, pronunciations of different regions, spelling (including history of), correct and incorrect usage of words, swearing, and the list goes on and on. Due to the book's ambitious coverage of spoken and written English, some of its pages may not be researched thoroughly (as a Finnish reviewer also points out). For example, to state that Australians "... spell many words the American way - labor rather than labour, for instance" is definitely wrong. Across our nation, we continue to embrace English spelling. In Australian English, it is correct to spell labour with a 'u' (with the exception of the Australian Labor Party which was influenced by the US labour movement in 1912 and adopted their American spelling). Vigour is spelled vigour, and not vigor; savour is spelled savour, and not savor; litre is spelled litre, and not liter; centre is spelled centre, and not center; caulk is spelled caulk, and not calk; grey is spelled grey, and not gray; and so forth. Also, Sydney-siders do not pronounce 'girl' in the clipped English manner of 'gel' unless they are someone's maiden aunt recently arrived from the UK. We Aussies tend to say 'gerl' and even slightly draw out the 'er' sound. Plus, we still more often eat 'biscuits' rather than 'cookies' and 'post' letters more often than we 'mail' them. We are not quite as Americanised as Bryson claims. He is at least correct in saying that Australia has three layers of social accent: British-sounding; broad working-class; and something in the middle. The 'strine' he cites is an exaggerated accent used by comedians from our Greek community in their comedy sketches (or that's the only place I've heard it). But I forgive Bryson for these anomalies because, despite the fact that some of his material may be dubious or reckless in its assertions, this is still a very entertaining and educative book. If you love English words in all their wonderful, evolving configurations and aural peculiarities, then put on your linguistic armour (note my Australian English spelling) and go boldly forward into these pages telling the story of the curious and ever-changing eccentricities of our mother tongue.

A good book on history of English, usage, pronunciation. Some of the anecdotes narrated are interesting. It is English demystified.

Este livro vale a pena. Escrito em uma linguagem coloquial, mas atraente, o livro tem muito conteúde para aquelas pessoas que amam o Inglês. De vez em quando volto a ela para reler pequenos trechos que deseho consevar mais nitidamente na memória. Vale a pena

"The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way" is a fascinating book written by Bill Bryson that explores the origins and evolution of the English language. Bryson takes readers on a linguistic journey through time, delving into the various events, influences, and quirks that have shaped the English language into what it is today.

One of the book's strengths lies in Bryson's ability to present complex linguistic concepts in an accessible and entertaining manner. He effortlessly weaves together historical anecdotes, etymological explanations, and humorous observations, making the subject matter both educational and enjoyable for readers of all backgrounds.

Bryson delves into the diverse origins of English, highlighting how the language has absorbed elements from various Celtic, Latin, French, and Germanic languages over the centuries. He explores the impact of historical events such as the Norman Conquest and the Renaissance, which profoundly influenced the vocabulary and grammar of English. Additionally, he discusses the often overlooked role of everyday individuals in shaping the language, from playwrights like Shakespeare to ordinary people who have contributed new words and phrases.

Throughout the book, Bryson also sheds light on the quirks and idiosyncrasies of English, addressing topics such as spelling, pronunciation, and regional dialects. He provides illuminating insights into why English is such a challenging language to learn, and he delves into its ever-evolving nature, where words continually change in meaning and new terms are constantly being added.

"The Mother Tongue" not only presents a comprehensive account of the history of the English language but also explores its global impact. Bryson delves into how English has become a dominant language worldwide, focusing on its spread during the British Empire and its current prevalence as a lingua franca.

Overall, "The Mother Tongue" is an engaging and informative exploration of the English language. Bryson's wit, extensive research, and passion for his subject shine through, making this book a must-read for anyone interested in language, history, or culture.