The Mother Tongue (Bill Bryson)

English doesn’t always make sense, but that’s okay. I don’t always make sense either, which may partially explain why I enjoy learning about the little quirks of English; they make my quirks seem insignificant.

I first read The Mother Tongue in the early 1990s and was reintroduced to it a few years ago when my great-uncle Tom loaned me a copy to take my mind off my cancer treatment. For some of us, a romp through the oddities of language is just the thing to brighten our day. This is not a serious linguistic study, but has lots of tidbits of information presented with a touch of humor.

If you’ve been reading along with Adventures in Editing, by now you have probably realized I enjoy humor, and you will not be surprised to know that my favorite part of The Mother Tongue is the short but entertaining chapter about swearing. Actually, I very rarely swear, but I like to have a good supply of naughty words to say when I, for example, drop a can of soup on my foot. And Bryson has given me a whole new outlook on one of our language’s most versatile words, which I will not write here because this is a PG-rated blog. You’ll have to look that one up for yourself!