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

More satire than history

Once I realized that the book is typical Bryson humor, I settled down to enjoy it. I had expected this to be a cheerful form of the History of the English Language, the sort of book like the Great Courses audiobooks by the Wheaton college professor, or one of the more academic books offered on audible, which are strictly accurate and still interesting. Bryson's book is more fun than accurate. Once I settled down and stopped trying to reconcile the things in this book presented as facts in with information in the more academic books I began to enjoy Bryson's book.

Its good to know this book is for humor, not so much for information.

I did not realize this was written in 1990

Audible states that the release date is 2015, but the book was released in 1990. As such it seems out of date, leaving out all the internet and tech slang that has been integrated into our dictionaries.
I think the narrator does a great job of enunciating accents and word differences as mentioned by the author, but you can tell there are spots of Bryson humor or timing that the narrator does not pick up. I would rather have listened to the author narrate, even if his pronunciation was not as good.

Language is More Fashion than Science

The Mother Tongue, by Bill Bryson. The book may be summed up by one of Mr. Bryson’s statements in the book, “[l]anguage is more fashion than science.” That is the bottom line, or the more ethereal learning from the book. Don’t get me wrong; this book is scientifically written meaning it takes data accumulates it and proposes a point concerning language and its maturation over the centuries. It then compares its findings to the observable and proves its conjectures as apparent from the observable. Now, if that all sounds dull, well it could be but for the fact this is written by Bill Bryson. Thus, what would have been leaden, is in fact, a most titillating and intriguing journey through etymology. A great read or if you prefer a stupendous listen to.

What is actually in the context of this novel? The history of English linguistic form studied by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence (about 700 A.D.) and then tracing its transmission, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages and reaching thoughtful conclusions about just why we talk in the manner which we do. Mr. Bryson makes this not only a learning experience but lots of fun!

The peculiarities of language are very very interesting. If you have an awareness or even a curiosity of words (for example do you like to read Shakespeare?) this book is for you.

Very good, but we need a Reboot!!

I would like to see a revision including social media as a major influence in the unifying of language.

A good education

Bill's story brings his deep subject matter research into a digestible form. It provides great insights into many aspects of our language structure and its evolution. The most challenging area for its audible presentation is that many words are spelled out to help us understand their discrete differences. Too many of those in sequence are difficult to absorb. Overall a great work.

Top notch

Mr. Bryson hit a home run with this one, and it is still entertaining. He has such a great ability to pump information out while making you laugh. Great book to listen to!

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.