The Mother Tongue (43 page)

common errors in, 130–31

distinguishing features of, 131

illogical, 11, 60, 194

spelling (
cont.
)

inconsistency in, 61, 167–68, 171, 214

modern vs. old, 48, 54, 194

multiple, for same word, 130, 135, 175–76, 228–29

of names, 226–29

old dialects reflected in, 131–34, 138–39, 144, 167–68

relationship of pronunciation to, 89–92, 99–103, 132, 135, 144, 218–20, 229–32

rendering of sounds by, 129–30

simplification of, 102–3, 140–44, 213–15, 226–27

standardization of, 138–39

spelling bees, 256

Spelling Reform Association, 141

split infinitives, 156–57

Spooner, William, 262–63

spoonerisms, 95, 262–63

St. Mary-le-Bow Church, 266

The State of the Language
(Howard), 140, 148

Statute of Additions, 224

Steele, Richard, 155

The Story of English
(McCrum, Cran, and MacNeil), 57, 115, 148, 202

The Story of Language
(Barber), 54

The Story of Language
(Pei), 54, 63, 130

Strauss, Richard, 9

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, 14

Suddeutsche Zeitung,
216

suffixes, 83–85

Sunday Times
(London), 151, 165, 236

supralaryngeal vocal tract, 94

Swahili, 21

swearing, 239–51

anger and insult expressed by, 239–40, 241, 250

British vs. American, 250–51

contempt for sacred things in, 240, 243–45

euphemisms for, 244, 247–49

proscription and punishment of, 240, 244–46, 248–49, 250

sexual content in, 239–43, 245–46, 247, 250–51

written use of, 245–50

Swedish, 202

Sweet, Henry, 274

Swift, Jonathan, 41, 150

Switzerland, 33, 202

syllables, 92–93, 94, 101–2

syncope, 92

Synge, John Millington, 41

synonyms, 5–6, 50, 57, 68, 69–70, 105, 110, 120, 240–42, 266–67

syntax, 19, 29, 51, 53, 55, 213

A Table Alphabeticall of Hard Words
(Cawdrey), 135, 166

Tagalog, 74, 181

The Tar Baby
(Harris), 124

Taylor, John, 257

Technology Review,
248

telegraphy, 127

television, 202, 207–8, 270, 276

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 140

tenses, 19, 29, 48, 145

Thackeray, William Makepeace,

155

Thames River, 46, 50, 58

Thorpe, Jim, 234

Thracian, 23, 25, 209

Time,
159, 215

Times
(London), 176, 192, 210, 247, 252–54

To a Haggis
(Burns), 122

Tocharian, 25

Todd, Loreto, 200

Tok Pisin, 200

Tolkien, J.R.R., 119

Tomorrow's Illiterates,
272

tongue-twisters, 256

translations, 177–78, 192, 209–10, 211, 212, 214–15, 260

The Treasure of Our Tongue
(Barnett), 130, 202, 273

Treaty of Rome, 209

Tristan da Cunha, 125

Trudgill, Peter, 35, 114

Trump, Donald, 237

Trust an Englishman
(Knowler), 118

Turan, Kenneth, 215

Twain, Mark, 106, 140–41

The Two Gentlemen of Verona
(Shakespeare), 63

type, movable, 137

typewriters, 127, 129

typographical errors, 72, 247–48

Ukrainian, 203

umlauts, 131

Uncle Remus and Br'er Rabbit
(Harris), 124

United States

educational concerns in, 272–73

illiteracy in, 272–73

immigration into, 177–79, 184–87, 226–27, 269–70

language groups in, 269–72

new language proposed for, 184

non-English speakers in, 200, 269–72

study of foreign languages in, 216–17

An Universal Etymological Dictionary
(Bailey), 167

Uralic, 16

U.S. English, 269–72

U.S. News & World Report,
202, 210, 272

U.S. Trademark Association, 158

The Use of English
(Quirk), 184

Utopia
(More), 66

Van Buren, Martin, 183

Vedas, 22–23

Ventris, Michael, 23

Verbatim,
81

verbs, 6–7, 22, 47–48, 50

evolution of, 102

nouns as, 6–7, 64, 90, 101, 146, 191, 192

Old English, 47–48, 54

progressive forms of, 65, 145

regularization of, 62–63

Vespucci, Amerigo, 180

Victoria, queen of England, 246, 248

Vikings, 49–50, 54, 229

Visser, F. Th., 149

vocabulary, 4–5, 19–20, 56–57, 67–70, 160–65, 168, 175–76, 177–78

of average persons, 162, 163–64

in dictionaries, 4, 160, 165, 166, 168, 172, 173–74, 175–76

memory and recall of, 163–64

writers' use of, 64–65, 78–79, 158, 161–62

vocal pitch, 89–90

voiceless labiodental fricative, 94

Volapük, 211–12

vowels, 87–88, 90, 93

changing pronunciation of, 97–101

long vs. short, 97, 99, 112, 123, 172

multiple pronunciations of, 129

vulgate, 27–28, 242

Waldesmüller, Martin, 180

Wales, 38–39, 43, 117

Wallis, John, 149

Washington, George, 183

Watergate hearings, 249

Webster, Noah, 100–101, 103, 140, 143, 169–73, 175, 184, 274

Webster's New World Dictionary,
130

Webster's Second New International Dictionary,
158

Webster's Third New International Dictionary
(Webster's Unabridged), 4, 158, 160

Welsh.
See
Gaelic, Welsh

Western alphabet, 34

Westminster Abbey, 137

Wexler, Kenneth, 19–20

What's the Difference
(Moss), 192

Who's Who,
218

Wicker, Tom, 273

Wilde, Oscar, 41

William the Conqueror, king of England, 55, 134

Wilson, Woodrow, 182

Wingfield, Walter Clopton, 140
n

Wodehouse, P. G., 218, 219

word chains, 86

word games, 127, 250, 252–61

A Word Geography of the Eastern United States
(Kurath), 107

The Word
(Laird), 136

wordplay, 99, 127, 245, 250, 252–68

words, 67–86

aboriginal, 6, 74, 116

adding to, 72, 83–86

adoption of, 4–5, 34, 50–51, 52–53, 74–77, 101–2, 116, 131, 139–40, 177–81

anglicizing of, 75–77, 101–2, 178–81, 206–7, 226–29, 231–35

Anglo-Saxon, 44, 56–57, 75, 77, 83, 241

back-formation of, 72–73

British vs. American usage of, 187–97, 246–47, 251

changed and drifting meanings of, 75–76, 80–83, 158–59, 181, 203, 242–43

compound, 83–86, 155, 181, 204

contradictory meanings of, 70–71, 195–96, 205

corruption of, 21, 203–5, 223

creation of, 64, 72–74, 77–80, 165, 169–70, 180–84, 189–92, 204

definitions of, 160–65, 167–68

erroneous creation of, 72–74

etymology of, 73, 77, 148, 173, 174, 191, 267

idiomatic preservation of, 81–82

instantaneous interpretation of, 95

kinship of, 75

length of, 10, 161
n

loss of, 63, 67–68, 98–99

mangling of, 262–65

mishearing of, 72, 95, 235

most commonly used, 164

multiple meanings of, 70–72, 160

multiple spellings of, 129–30, 135, 175–76, 228–29

positive vs. negative forms of, 68

reemergence of, 78, 85, 189

reversible elements in, 86

roots of, 74–76, 80–81, 83, 155, 211–12

shortening of, 72, 83–85, 92–93, 116, 142, 178, 204

sounds shared by, 17, 100

technological, 78, 161

theories on formation of, 72

universal, 203

writers' creation of, 64–65,

78–79

Words in the Mind
(Aitchison), 163

Words and Ways of American English
(Pyles), 191, 246

World War I, 76, 142, 185

World War II, 195, 209, 210, 242, 266

Wycliffe, John, 192

Wynne, Arthur, 253

Yats, 123

Yeats, William Butler, 41

Yiddish, 114, 187

Yugoslavia, 198

Zachrisson, R. E., 214

Zamenhoff, Ludovic Lazarus, 212

About the Author

Bill Bryson's bestselling books include
One Summer
,
A Short History of Nearly Everything
,
At Home
,
A Walk in the Woods
,
Neither Here nor There
,
Made in America
, and
The Lost Continent
. He lives in England with his wife.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.

Books by Bill Bryson

The Lost Continent

Notes from a Small Island

Mother Tongue

Neither Here nor There

Made in America

A Walk in the Woods

I'm a Stranger Here Myself

In a Sunburned Country

Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words

Bill Bryson's African Diary

A Short History of Nearly Everything

A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Shakespeare: The World as Stage

Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors

At Home: A Short History of Private Life

One Summer: America, 1927

Copyright

A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1990 by William Morrow.

THE MOTHER TONGUE
. Copyright © 1990 by Bill Bryson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

First Avon Books edition published 1991.

Reissued in Perennial 2001.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:

Bryson, Bill.

   The mother tongue : English and how it got that way / Bill Bryson.

     p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references.

1.
English language—History. I. Title.

ISBN 0-380-71543-0 (pbk.)

EPub Edition MAY 2015 ISBN 9780062417442

14  
RRD
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