This version of the book has been reviewed in English(130) by readers.
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What are readers saying about The Mother Tongue English & How It Got That Way?
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A reader posted a review at 2009-09-19 10:59:31.
(Language: English)
 
my least favorite bill bryson book
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A reader posted a review at 2009-09-10 06:55:13.
(Language: English)
Fantastic book. Wondered why I never learned any of this at school. Gave me an appreciation of why English is the way it is.
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Siim posted a review at 2009-09-08 15:21:44.
(Language: English)
All in all a good book for a linguist enthusiast like me. I enjoyed it very much as it was amusing and riddled with fun facts interwoven with Bryson's excellent charm that is his writing.A bump along the way. The book lost a bit of authenticity for me when it said "Estonian and Finnish people can understand each other without effort". Me being Estonian and having had a Finnish girlfriend, I must say that is far from truth. We could understand each other in our mother tongues as well as a German can understand a Dutch. It had other bumps, but this was the one that got me saying "oh-oh" with a little shake of the head.
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Laurie posted a review at 2009-08-30 22:27:51.
(Language: English)
I love the writing of Bill Bryson and so it pains me to pan him but this book, while absolutely delightful, does play fast and loose with the facts. It feels like dear Bill put more of his energies into being clever and amusing rather than knuckling down to some hard research. An example? Bryson states that “Estimates of the number of languages in the world usually fix on a figure of about 2,700…” Ethnologue lists 6912 living languages in the world today. I doubt that 4200+ languages were discovered between 1990 (when this was originally published) and today. I picked this up because I’ve really enjoyed Bryson’s other works, especially his first-person travelogues. I think I’d better stick with those. I wish I hadn’t invested in this.
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Mark posted a review at 2009-08-30 16:57:08.
(Language: English)
I am a sucker for creation stories and languages, and what better one that the creation of modern English?
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Josh posted a review at 2009-06-10 10:20:42.
(Language: English)
A bit of a change of form for Bryson fans used to his sarcastic wit and travel-diaries. In this volume, Bryson demonstrates his knowledge of the English language and some of its (many) quirky conventions. Not what I expected, but still interesting.
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Zay posted a review at 2009-05-08 21:05:33.
(Language: English)
i dont agree with Bill Bryson on some theories and topics..comparisons mainly made amongst indo-european languages,the odd one out was japanese..if only he made some of the comprasions with turkish langauge, then i bet even he would be amazed as well..but then again im just an amateur researcher on languages, not a scholar!!!
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Ted posted a review at 2009-04-24 12:35:46.
(Language: English)
For English language lovers, this is a whimsical and interesting examination of the history of English told by a writer better known as a travel writer than an etymologist. The book grows on you quickly and, before you know it, you are engrossed. It's that good.
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Sam posted a review at 2009-03-14 12:35:19.
(Language: English)
Lots of interesting facts about the English language, written in a style that is entertaining. Not dry at all!
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