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  The Mother Tongue (Paperback) By (author) Bill Bryson

  

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  Short Description for The Mother TongueThe author of the acclaimed The Lost Continent now steers us through the quirks and byways of the English language. We learn why island, freight, and colonel are spelled in such unphonetic ways, why four has a u in it but forty doesn't, plus bizarre and enlightening facts about some of the patriarchs of this peculiar language.
  Full description

  • Publisher: HARPER PERENNIAL
  • Published: 01 September 1991
  • Format: Paperback 272 pages
  • See: Full bibliographic data
  • Categories: Linguistics | Humor
  • ISBN 13: 9780380715435 ISBN 10: 0380715430
  • Sales rank: 9,219

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Full description for The Mother Tongue

• 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.