Today, a short book review: Mother Tongue: english and how it got to be that way.
I don’t happen to have my copy with me anymore. It was lent out and remains in a permanent state of being traded amongst friends, but I wanted to review it as we get closer and closer to Black Friday, (*shiver*) since it’d make a phenomenal gift (Just don’t loan it!).
As a style guide it doesn’t fill a niche. As an academic research into linguistics it’s far too light. As a makeshift thesaurus it falls a bit flat and it has nothing of a dictionary to it. Instead, Mother Tongue takes the careful road of linguistic travelogue. It’s a fast-paced and flighty journey through the strange nuances of the English language. Most of all it’s fun. English is a terribly neurotic language, but it’s a joyous fellow and appreciates the attention.
Neither a classic, nor heavy non-fiction, nor one of the thousands of books of new fiction coming out, Mother Tongue fills an interesting little place that all writers really should look into (and everyone else as well). There are chapters are interesting word etymologies, swearing and its endless variety, curious changes in spelling, and generous addition of language lore and rumor.
I’ll let Amazon’s review fill in the specifics that I can’t recall well enough to attempt, but The Mother Tongue is well worth looking for!
