Bill Bryson - The Mother Tongue

Bill Bryson - The Mother Tongue
(english and how it got that way)

(1990, 270pg, en)


The Mother Tongue is a book by Bill Bryson which compiles the history and origins of the English language and the language's various quirks. It is subtitled English And How It Got That Way. The book discusses the Indo-European origins of English, the growing status of English as a global language, the complex etymology of English words, the dialects of English, spelling reform, prescriptive grammar, and more minor topics including swearing. Bryson's account is a popularization of the subject, designed to entertain as well as to inform, and the book is sprinkled with trivia and language lore.