Title:
The Mother Tongue
Author:
Bill Bryson
Publisher:
William Morrow and Company, 1990
ISBN:
0-688-07895-8

Bill Bryson is a journalist who seems to have made a hobby of language. Tongue is a well-researched collection of essays on the English language. It was published in 1990 by William Morrow and Company, and may be found using ISBN number 0-688-07895-8.

AFU is not alt.talk.origins. Even I have commented on this on more than one occasion. Yet stories about word origins are constantly posted to us, and the FAQ contains a number of entries concerning folk etymologies. Tongue was quoted on a couple of occasions as a source in recent posts to AFU. So an AFU bookreview appears to be appropriate.

Bryson is an entertaining writer, and he references about a dozen books in his essays. The book includes a decent index, and a lovely bibliography which would be a great starting point for any budding philologist. His essays cover the history of English, the parts of English, and various diversions like word play and swearing.

Bryson spends a fair amount of time debunking language legends. Some points are made with specific references. In discussing prudery, he mentions the story that "people took to dressing their piano legs in little skirts lest they rouse anyone to untimely passion." He then mentions Words and Ways by Thomas Pyles, who had found evidence that the story "almost certainly was untrue."

Sometimes he resorts to logic, which is a dangerous pasttime. For instance, in discussing claims that pronounciation of "aitch" vs "haitch" was used as a shibboleth by Irish partisans, he simply concludes that "it is difficult to imagine circumstances in which a captive could be made to enunciate the letter h without being aware of the crucial importance for his survival of how he pronounced it."

However, quite frequently, he tells stories without attribution. So he tells us that "the Eskimos, as is well known, have 50 words for types of snow -- though curiously no word for just plain snow." (p14) Or, he tells "the true story of an American lady, newly arrived in London, who opened her front door to find three burly men on the steps, informing her that they were her dustmen. 'Oh,' she blurted, 'but I do my own dusting.'" (p176) He informs us that the Europa Hotel in Sarajevo has a message on every door in some very strange English, but provides no clue how he knows this. He even goes on to make the (possibly true) statement that none of the languages spoken in Yugoslavia contain the word "stop," which I fully expect to hear repeated as "None of the languages in Yugoslavia have a word for 'stop'."

One funny story is quoted from a newspaper, the "Guardian," where "a congressman" is quoted as saying, "If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for me." AFUisti will recognize the signs of journalistic legend smithing all over this one.

For me the book was a fun look at language. It has its flaws, when it comes to just the facts, and in my opinion should not be relied on as sole source by AFUisti. It is entertaining, and, where the sources are cited, should be reliable enough. I give it an AFU bookshelf score of six.