emphasis in, 91, 95, 101–2, 227–28
evolution of, 95–104
fashion and class distinctions in, 103, 113–15, 116n, 118–19
foreigners’ difficulty with, 87–88, 114, 133
historic rhymes as clue to, 98–99, 100–101
historic vs. modern, 104, 171–72
impact of literature on, 96, 98–99, 100–101
inconsistency in, 89, 100–101
letters intruding into, 91–92
misspellings as clue to, 99
of names, 92–93, 99–100, 218–20, 229–32
nineteenth-century, 103, 113
phonetic elements of, 93, 95,
135
rate of change in, 96
relationship of spelling to, 89–92, 99–103, 132, 134, 144, 218–20, 229–32
shifting vowel sounds in, 97–101, 104
slurred and truncated, 92–93, 95–96, 103
sound combinations in, 90, 91
suppressed sounds in, 95, 96–97, 99, 113, 138–39, 230
survival of, 99–100, 101–2, 103
syllabic values in, 92–93, 101–2
unconscious factors in, 91–92
vocal pitch and, 89–90
words rendered by multiple, 89, 144, 227–28
See also diction; speech
Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue (Swift), 150
Proto-Indo-European language, 16–17, 24
publishing, 137
pubs, 220–23
puns, 99, 245, 255
Puttenham, George, 58
Pygmalion (Shaw), 118, 119, 142
Pyles, Thomas, 110, 169–70, 191, 246, 251
Quayle, J. Danforth, 273
Quebec, 36, 271
Quirk, Randolph, 3, 184, 217
radicals, 126–27
Ramsay, David, 183
The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 158, 160, 165, 249
Rawlinson, Henry, 23
Read, Allen Walker, 182
Reagan, Ronald W., 217, 258
Reaney, P. H., 228
rebuses, 256, 259
Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy, 137
“Red Pants” (Sebastian), 81
Renaissance, 48–49
rhymes, 98–99, 100–101, 266–68
Richard II, king of England, 221
Richard II (Shakespeare), 245
Richard III, king of England, 222
Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal, 150, 166
Richter, Alan, 254
riddles, 256, 259
Roget’s Thesaurus, 4
Roman Catholic Church, 34, 55
Roman Empire
decline and fall of, 28, 46
invasion and occupation of England by, 43–46, 121, 133, 221, 229, 242
Romance languages, 5, 26–28, 47, 96, 276
Romanian, 26, 28, 34
Romansh, 32–33
Roosevelt, Theodore, 141
Royal Society for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy, 150
Ruhlen, Merrit, 16
runes, 44, 133
Russian, 4, 30, 34, 215
S4C, 39
Safire, William, 130, 152, 249, 260
Sanskrit, 22–23, 25
Saxons, 44, 95, 167, 229
Scandinavian languages, 25–26, 34, 49–52
A Scheme for a New Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling (Franklin), 140
Schlegel, Friedrich von, 23
Schleyer, Johann Martin, 211–12
schwa, 87, 93
Scientific American, 19
Scotland, 26, 39–41, 43, 117
Highland dialect of. See Gaelic, Scottish
Lowland dialect of, 122
Scots, 122
Scrabble, 254
scribes, 61, 133–34
Sea Islands, 123–25, 187
Seashore, R. H., 163
Seaspeak, 214
Sebastian, Robert M., 81
sentences, 146
ambiguous, 264
length of, 168
prepositional endings to, 153–54
Serbo-Croatian, 34, 181, 203
Shakespeare, William, 228, 262
authorship question and, 65, 256
death of, 65, 66, 245
language of, 59, 60, 61–62, 64–66, 73, 80, 96, 97, 100, 121, 154, 187–88, 191, 217, 245, 255
lost plays of, 65
multiple spellings for name of, 135–36, 176, 228
puns of, 99, 245, 255
vocabulary size of, 161
words and phrases coined by, 64–65, 78–79
works of, 63–64, 65, 80, 136, 187–88, 245, 256
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 262
Shetland Islands, 50
Shipley, Joseph T., 161
A Short Introduction to English Grammar (Lowth), 153
shorthand, 140, 142
Sidney, Philip, 147–48
Simon and Schuster, 253
A Simplified Alphabet (Twain),
140
Simplified Spelling Board, 141–42
slang, 110, 116–17, 190, 195–96, 213, 240, 251
rhyming of, 266–68
slavery, 185
Smith, Logan Pearsall, 190
Smith, Thomas, 149
Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society (Trudgill), 35, 114
Soviet Union, 33–34, 37, 216–17
Spain, 54, 270
Spanish, 2, 4, 5, 26, 34, 35, 46, 179, 201, 269–72, 276
Spectator, 40, 195, 250
speech
analysis of, 91, 94
children’s mastery of, 17–20
conversational speed of, 94
cultural conventions and, 30–31, 103–4
dictation of, 95
inefficient process of, 95
laxness and imprecision in, 92–94, 95–96, 103
physiology of, 13–14, 91, 94, 98, 118–19
rules of, 17–18
slipups in, 95
words and sentences run together in, 92–94, 103
speech impediments, 118–19, 124
spelling, 126–44
attempts at reform of, 138–44, 170–71
British vs. American, 100, 143, 170–72, 175–76, 194
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
c
ontempt 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, 140n
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, 161n
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.
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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.
PE 1072.B 76. 1990
89-77521
420'.9—dc20
CIP
ISBN 0-380-71543-0 (pbk.)
EPub Edition MAY 2015 ISBN 9780062417442
14 RRD 60 59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51
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