The Mother Tongue | Bill Bryson | Imperfect perhaps, but a great read.

The Mother Tongue | Bill Bryson | An absolute must for any linguist

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The Mother Tongue

	The Mother Tongue Bill Bryson Harper Perennial, 1991 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 122 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Imperfect perhaps, but a great read.

I disagree with several of the reviews here which cite several specific points of contention as making the book entirely worthless. I think it easily earns 4.5 - 5 stars. It IS over a decade old now, and I don't think it is intended as a source for scholars of English. But, for the amateur linguist and even the wannabe linguist it is a great read. I can't compete with some of the above reviewer's scholarly points, but I don't think replacing some of Bryson's dogma with their own is worthwhile. Mother Tongue is a great starting point and very educational. "Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words" is also a great introduction and gets 5 stars from me.

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An absolute must for any linguist

People who are interested in language, in language history and development, cannot ignore this book. It is scientific yet hilariously written, combining facts with Bill Bryson's personal style. Thus is created a most entertaining and informative book. Thanks to the absence of technical terms, this book is also entertaining for people who think they are not interested in how English got to be what it is. But read the book - you will find you suddenly are!

Brilliantly witty and utterly enjoyable.

This is a lighthearted look at the intricacies of the English language: its history and development as well as colloquialisms, modern slang, and general language-mangling by non-native speakers.
It's not a reference book, but a playful examination of one of the most intricate languages on earth. If you're more fond of pedantic linguistic analysis (as many previous reviewers seem to be), it's best to look elsewhere. If, however, you have a good sense of humour and are up to a fun read, definitely check this out.

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Not as good as other Bryson

Like any Bill Bryson book, this is a fun read, but in some passages the author pretends to find some bit of usage more confusing than he really does, just to make a point. This happens often enough to become a little irritating, but it's still pretty enjoyable.

Mediocre book

As other reviews have pointed out, Bryson appears to have little more than an amateur's understanding of the history of the English language and linguistics in general. This book is riddled with numerous factual errors and simplifications regarding the origins of words, as well as the grammatical properties of other languages. Most irritating, Bryson propagates the Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax (the idea that Inuits have hundreds of words for "snow"), which has been proven false time and again from linguistic experts.

A couple of the later chapters of this book are interesting and well-written, particularly the one about the historical hostility that British people have for American English. Here, Bryson provides multiple quotations and citations from the past to show the British enmity for American English.

But earlier chapters are repetitive and boring, as they read like endless word-lists. After multiple pages of reading factoids and funny-sounding English words, and clever-seeming wordplay, the reader gets tired.

For someone interested in language, or in the history of the English language, I recommend the better-written and factually-accurate books:

"The Language Instinct" by Steven Pinker

"The Adventure of English" by Melvyn Bragg

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