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.

Out of date, some tedious spelling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.

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.

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.

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.

There should be a rule...

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

If you are a Bill Bryson fan, I just cannot recommend this book.

How could the performance have been better?

There should be a rule that Bill Bryson MUST narrate his own books.

Not best as an audible book

First of all didn't realize the original date as 1990. Dan Quayle mis-speaking when we had such a rich source in Bush 43. Doesn't work well as audible due to the endless amount of words spelled out. And often so many examples were used for one phenomenon that it was a little painful. Otherwise some great information.

Fascinating

Not really a history but maybe all the more interesting because of it. Bryson being Bryson.

Bryson - the most enjoyable way to learn something

I really love to listen to books written by Bryson. He knows how to tell a story and make you enjoy and cherish each and every moment of it. Every time I finish one of his books I think "ok - which one will I listen now?". You can't go wrong with a Bryson.