The Mother Tongue

De: Bill Bryson

Narrado por: Stephen McLaughlin

With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson - the acclaimed author of The Lost Continent - brilliantly explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience, and sheer fun of the English language. From the first descent of the larynx into the throat (why you can talk but your dog can't) to the fine lost art of swearing, Bryson tells the fascinating, often uproarious story of an inadequate, second-rate tongue of peasants that developed into one of the world's largest growth industries.

©1990 Bill Bryson (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers

entertaining but

The narrator is OK. Rather monotone, but OK.
This title was OK until about Chapter 5 when variant pronunciations were SPELLED out. List after list.

Just not a book to be listened to

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I think that this would be a great book to read, if you are into the root and meaning of words in the English language, however, in listening to it, you don't get the time to pause and reflect on how you read/speak/hear the words. Also, there are countless times when a word will be spelled out (in English and other languages), and these examples cannot be fully digested audibly.

What does Stephen McLaughlin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Obviously the reader, through research and practice, is able to pronounce difficult words in arcane and foreign languages that I would merely stumble through.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No. There's no plot.

Out of date, some tedious spelling

Some of the chapters have too much spelling of words to be pleasant to listen to. I prefer John McWhorter’s books on English. I had hoped for more charming stories of English vs. American usage, but there wasn’t enough, and I was already familiar with a lot of the points he made.

Probably should have gotten the ebook

English is not my first language. And listening to this book I realized spelling may not be my forte. If its a similar struggle for you, you may enjoy the ebook better.

very interesting!

If you have any interest in language, you need to read this book. fascinating and informative, with a bit of humor too.

Beautiful analysis of this silly language

I loved this book. Bill Bryson is incredible. Narrator was great too.

Wish I could say more but gotta keep running.

Entertaining entry for beginners

I am not a linguist or student in the field so I can't comment on the accuracy of the information presented. However, Bryson does cite sources and I is up front about areas where there is on going debate or no clear answer. Narrator does a good job with what could be difficult material to convey without visuals.

Attain word enlightment, if you can listen quickly

What did you like best about The Mother Tongue? What did you like least?

This book will enlighten you to the oddities of many English word spellings and originations. After listening to it I enjoyed sharing the things I learned with my fiancé. The narrator did a great job of pronouncing Welsh, Gaelic, French and words from all sorts of languages that I would have had difficulty with if I was just reading it. However, a good deal of the book was the spelling out of words. For example...'knight' is spelled 'K' 'N' 'I' 'G' 'H' 'T'. It was EXTREMELY difficult to follow along when the narrator spelled out long, complex words. It was just something meant to be read and not to be listened to.

Would you recommend The Mother Tongue to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes I'd recommend the book but I would recommend it be read if possible, instead of being listened to.

Which character – as performed by Stephen McLaughlin – was your favorite?

There are no characters in the book.

Did The Mother Tongue inspire you to do anything?

If anything it might inspire you to learn more about etymology

Read only if you are very interested in the English language

It was an interesting book but it was very very detailed. If it were not for Bill Bryson being so funny I could not have made my way through it. The narrator did a good job but it would have been better if Bryson has narrated.

Well Delivered, but not suited for audio alone

There are some sections of this book (phonology) where it is amazing to have the words read aloud. Takes all the work out of IPA. However, there are some sections (especially orthography) that become hard to follow because the narrator must spell each word. The content is interesting until about the last two chapters. It lost me in the modern era, and is a bit outdated.