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Wednesday, 17 August 2005 |
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Current Store: UK Store
Books : Mother Tongue: The English Languageby: Bill Bryson
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Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: Who would have thought that a book about the English language would be so entertaining? Certainly not this grammar-allergic reviewer, but The Mother Tongue pulls it off admirably. Bill Bryson--a zealot--is the right man for the job. Who else could rhapsodise about "the colourless murmur of the schwa" with a straight face? It is his unflagging enthusiasm, seeping from between every sentence, that carries the book. Bryson displays an encyclopedic knowledge of his topic, and this inevitably encourages a light tone; the more you know about a subject, the more absurd it becomes. No jokes are necessary, the facts do well enough by themselves, and Bryson supplies tens per page. As well as tossing off gems of fractured English (from a Japanese eraser: "This product will self- destruct in Mother Earth."), Bryson frequently takes time to compare the idiosyncratic tongue with other languages. Not only does this give a laugh (one word: Welsh), and always shed considerable light, it also makes the reader feel fortunate to speak English. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Interesting but not for everyoneI liked this book. It is written with Bryson's usual witty and engaging style. It is a book that is absolutely of the high standard any reader of Bryson's previous books will have come to expect. Having said that, this book is certainly not for everyone, even if you have thoroughly enjoyed many of Bryson's previous offerings. I have an amateur's interest in language and this book provided me with an informative introduction to its history and quirky nature. If you are not interested ... Read More Rating:  - Truth or Not?I found, for the most part of reading, this book to be very entertaining and informative. I read a few other Bryson books in the past, about travelling etc... but as an English teacher, well TEFL teacher, I thought this would be a great book to use quotes from for anecdotes during my lessons. The problem occurred near the start of chapter 14 (out of 16). Quote: "Some cultures don't swear at all..... The Finns, lacking the sort of words you need to describe your feeling ... Read More Rating:  - Nice but not reliableI agree with those who say that it is a pleasant book. It should learn us something and it does, but I can't accept the enormous mistakes the author wrote. When an author writes this kind of book he is supposed to know its subject thoroughly and assert only proven and reliable facts, not approximations. It is evident that the author doesn't master the French language; otherwise he would not pretend that only the English language makes the difference between house and home while the French has only one ... Read More Rating: - Good, but not Brysons bestThis book is slightly disspointing, given the very high standards that we are used to from BB. Still, it is a probably a worthwhile read. Some other reviewers have commented on the book being full of mistakes and false claims. There are several, and it was dissappointing that someone of BB's quality should feel the need to embelish his book with these. However, the reader should not treat this as a serious work on linguistics, but rather as a popular and light hearted overview. Read More Rating:  - Full of errors and dangerously misinformativeI go along with many reviewers that Bryson makes a lot of errors because he's not a journalist, or a linguist. I'm only curious in one thing, though, from my point of view. He claims that only 8% of Albanian words are of native origin. Just like the other hundreds of languages he pretends to know of, I'm sure he's done his research, but I'd like to know where he got that information from. If I could speak to him 50 Albanian words perhaps he could tell me where 41 of those are borrowed from.This and countless ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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