The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way

Plot

Bryson covers the entire history of language, from the first crude murmurings of Neanderthal man thirty thousand years ago to the explosion of English as a global language in this century. We learn why island, freight, and colonel are spelled in such patently unphonetic ways, and four has a u in it but forty does not. A couple of quotes: “Any language where the unassuming word ‘fly’ signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel, and a critical part of a gentleman’s apparel is clearly asking to be mangled.” “There are more students of English in China than there are people in the United States.”