The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way

Description

Packed with fascinating facts on the English language, Mother Tongue is an entertaining and didactic investigation of the influence and distribution of the language worldwide and its origins as a second-rate tongue spoken by peasants.;The world's language -- The dawn of language -- Global language -- The first thousand years -- Where words come from -- Pronunciation -- Varieties of English -- Spelling -- Good English and bad -- Order out of chaos -- Old world, new world -- English as a world language -- Names -- Swearing -- Wordplay -- The future of English. The world's language -- The dawn of language -- Global language -- The first thousand years -- Where words come from -- Pronunciation -- Varieties of English -- Spelling -- Good English and bad -- Order out of chaos -- Old world, new world -- English as a world language -- Names -- Swearing -- Wordplay -- The future of English.