Rating: 
Summary: Witty but not too much worried about accuracy
Review: I enjoyed reading "Mother Tongue: The English Language" (that was the title of my 1991 Penguin paperback edition) very much, as I enjoyed all Bryson's other books. It is a delightful mess of science and entertainment. However, I would like to point out a few errors regarding some of the examples from German.In the first chapter on page 2 it should read "ein Imageproblem" (we Germans are notorious for compounds, as Bryson rightly states) and "der Cash-flow" (don't ask me why it's male). "Schadenfreude" (page 4) is a damn useful word, and my wife who is a native speaker of English often mourns the lack of it in her language. On page 9 it should read "Wirtschaftstreuhandgesellschaft" (which is usually referred to as "Treuhand") and "Kriegsgefangenenentschädigungsgesetz" (the word is long enough without the additional "an" that slipped in. Germans use a lot of English words in ways unknown to the English as mentioned in the chapter on English as a world language on page 179. But there are some misunderstandings I would like to clear up: a "Twen" is a person between 20 and 29, so one doesn't say "being in his twens". It's used in the same way as "Teen". The plural of "Teenager" in German is "Teenager" without an "s": I have encountered "Steadyseller" in this book for the first time--it might be used exclusively by publishers or book-shop owners. A "Dresssman" is not a snappy dresser but a male model. Other beautiful examples of this strange German habit are "Handy" for mobile phone, "Pullunder" for a knitted, sleeveless sweater, "trampen" for hitchhiking, "Spleen" for eccentricity, "Box" for hi-fi speaker, "Longdrink" for cocktail, "Catchen" for WWF wrestling, "Plaid" for blanket, "Crash" fabric for crushed cotton, "Pony" for hair falling over the forehead, "topfit" for very fit, "longline" for down the line in tennis, and, finally, the prototype: "Smoking" for tuxedo. Excuse me for rambling. There is no such word as "bumfodden" (page 220) in German meaning toilet paper or anything else. It might be interesting to check what a Danish dictionary has to offer on that matter. While I'm not a linguist a couple of other things did catch my eye: the comment on "petroleum" is just the other way round: "petra" is Greek and "oleum" is Latin (page 133; later on page 225 Jesus's pun on Peter and the rock is correctly traced back to Greek). "Esposito" sounds spanish to me, not Italian (page 199). Anyway, these are all minor matters. They didn't affect in the least the fun I had reading the book: it's a must for anybody who likes the English language--just as "Made in America" or "Troublesome Words".
Rating:
Summary: Clever, funny, and intresting
Review: Bill Bryson attempts to provide a guide of the English Language in a light hearted humourous way. The jokes make what would normally be boring reading more bearable and intresting. The facts which you learn from his encyclopedic knowledge on the subject, although often usless are just as often hilarius. Although this book makes for excellent reading it also lacks a certain something which would put this book in a league of it's own. Bryson claims to disagree with the beleif that English is superior to other languages yet through out the book we are left feeling that indeed English is superior. over all a lighthearted brief coverage of our language but not something I would read again.
Rating: 
Summary: Great read for linguists or non-linguists
Review: I read this book several years ago as a linguistics student. Really enjoyed the humor, the facts, and the little surprises. I learned a lot and enjoyed it!
Rating:
Summary: A good and gentle introduction...
Review: I got the impression early on in reading _The Mother Tongue_ that Bryson was 'carrying a torch' for the English language. As I continued to read, I shelved this attitude into something more akin to British 'civic pride'. The author comes off as very proud of the English language, but perhaps to the exclusion of other languages. Most disappointing, perhaps, was his reference to the myth surrounding the words for snow in the eskimo language (see Pinker, _The Language Instinct_ for further -- fairly convincing -- argument). I generally treat information given as fact with a jaundiced eye, but an error such as this urged me to read even more carefully. This book is probably meant for the casual reader, and as such it succeeds very well. The writing is for the most part quite readable, and the injection of humour and wit is more than welcome. I appreciate writing where I can hear the author's voice, and feel like I'm not being assaulted by the bibliography section of the library.
Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyable work for a non-specialist.
Review: Bryson's writing style is thoroughly entertaining, but the book is lacking in factual support. Particulary disturbing among the many errors of fact is the statement that languages apart from English do not have and do not need thesauri. This is simply not true, and implies that the English language is somehow superior to other languages, although Mr. Bryson claims to disagree with this belief. This could be due to poor research on his part, as Mr. Bryson apparently does not speak any foreign languages and therefore would not have any personal basis for comparison. It is regrettable that Mr. Bryson's enthusiasm could not be coupled with a corresponding amount of accuracy. Perhaps the author will revise and correct his work for future publications. (And for those who are interested in another mix-up, Mons is the French name for the city in Southern Belgium, and Bergen is its Flemish Dutch name. In the book, the names were reversed.)
Rating:
Summary: Gloriously entertaining but factually suspect.
Review: A treasure house of the facts of the history of English and its oddities, but the "facts" are sometimes suspect, eg we do not say gill for girl in South Africa and I'm told that ndlebezakho (not hlebeshako) in Xhosa (incidentally President Mandela's mother tongue; not XoXa) freely translates as darn your ears (not your mother's ears) and is a mild admonition such as to a naughty child and not "the most provocative possible remark". I was comforted by the examples of incorrect grammar and usage quoted from leading authors' works on English, to which one can add examples from the book itself, eg Some idea of the bewilderments ... are indicated; forbidden from; They find particular pleasure in taking old Norman names and mashing them around until they became; Often the names we know places by is.
My rating is based on the book's entertainment value, which is only impaired by the uncertainty as to when one can rely on what is said and when not. But I caution against mistaking the book as a serious reference work despite the academic-seeming footnotes. The author himself makes no such disclaimer, at least in my edition (1990).
Rating:
Summary: Finnish
Review: I noticed a disturbing and rather strange error in the chapter on swearing. It may have been changed in the recent edition, but in the edition I read it was rather a fly in the ointment for me, although the book was, for the most part, quite an entertaining if not a very serious discourse on the English language. "Ravintolassa" is most certainly not a swear word in Finnish and means nothing more than "in the restaurant." Incidentally, Finnish does contain many real swear words and does not resort to such outlandish concoctions of words as Bryson suggests.
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting book, and enjoyable!
Review: I love books. Being an aspiring writer I also love words, especially the origin of words. So what is more natural than to love a book that is about words. I think you should be proud of your language and should strive to learn it well. You should be able to speak it and to spell it correctly. After all, it is your language. With this in mind, it has always interested me as to why we speak English the way we do. What accounts for the idiosyncrasies? Why do we spell particular words the way we do when it surely thumbs its nose at all logic? The answers to these intriguing questions and more are in "The Mother Tongue, English and How it Got That Way". It offers such gems as the noted Samuel Johnson who once wrote that a 'garret' was the uppermost room in a house, and just a few lines later described 'attic' as the room above the garret. Of course I noticed right away in my copy that on the inside cover blurb about the book it stated the first lines of the book were: "Over 350 million people speak English..." When you actually read the first lines of the text, it says: "Over 300 million people speak English..." Wherefore art thou, Editor? The book is very readable, which was a pleasant surprise. Normally something of this ilk you would expect to be dry and boring. Mr. Bryson does an excellent job of keeping the reader's interest. This is a very informative book about the versatility of the English language. It compares English to French, German, Spanish, etc., showing how rich English is in its vocabulary. (From "I Hear America Talking" by Stuart Berg Flexner, PB by Simon & Schuster 1979 ISBN: 0-671-24994-0 505 pages) The English language has at least 600,000 words, over 400,000 more than when the Pilgrims landed. Most Americans are estimated to 'know' 10,000-20,000 words, but actually only 'use' half that number. Of these, just 10 basic words account for over 25% of all speech and 50 simple words for almost 60%, with about 2,000 words accounting for 99% of everything we say. The most common word spoken in American is 'I'. The second most common is 'you'. The third and fourth are 'the' and 'a'. Mr. Bryson expounds on this a little by saying "Websters 3rd New International Dictionary lists 450,000 words while the Revised Oxford English Dictionary has 615,000. Technical and scientific terms would add millions more. Altogether, about 200,000 English words are in common use, 184,000 in German, and only 100,000 in French." The book tells why island, freight, and colonel are spelled in certainly unphonetic ways. It tells why four has a "u" and forty doesn't. Another quote from the book: "Nothing in English is quite what it seems. Take the simple word 'what'. We use it every day - indeed, every few sentences. But imagine trying to explain to a foreigner what 'what' means. It takes the Oxford English Dictionary five pages and almost 15,000 words to manage the task." Having a non-American wife and helping her with her English lessons, I am very aware of the idosyncrasies of the English language. Especially when to her 'vase' sounds exactly like 'face' and she still thinks 'work' and walk' sound alike. If you are interested at all in writing then this book is recommended as a good read. It will give you some meaningful insights into the language and might prove beneficial one day in helping you write that novel. It could very well help you find just the elusive right word you need for that particular sentence. In the recent movie "Throw Momma From the Train", about struggling authors, one of the on-going premises of the storyline is an inability of the two main characters to find a suitable word for the opening line of a story: "The night was _____." Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito, the actors, both mouthed alternate choices throughout the movie, until DeVito's mom came up with that special word that described exactly what they wanted to say. They continually tried words like: hot, wet, moist, warm, humid, to describe how the 'night' was. The mother character mentioned 'sultry', which of course was exactly the word they were searching for. This is the sort of book that will help you to find your own 'sultry'.
Rating:
Summary: The (hi)story of the English language
Review: I never read "The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way" till its end. Rather, I started reading it to write a research paper while taking an English course in Boston and came back to Brazil before having read half of it. Yet, no more than a couple of pages were needed to capture my attention in such a way that I would never stop close the book.
Bryson manages to give not only an objective description of the historical development of the English language, but he also really tells you the story of it, as if it were a novel that makes you wonder what will come next.
His theories and impressions are not imposed as a scientifical work. They are suggested and they arouse the reader's interest in the matter. It makes you start thinking about the language, the same one you use every day, probably without even paying much attention to it. It made me think about it -- and English is not even my Mother Tongue.
The word "linguistics" may sound a bit too complicated or abstract for most of the people. Linguistics books may not always be best-sellers. But in "The Mother Tongue: (...)" Bill Bryson makes things differently. He shows you how deep the language lies within you by making you love it, giving you, little by little, small pieces of history disguised as characters of a page-turning novel.
Rating:
Summary: A sweeping world view of the evolution of the modern tongue
Review: Takes us straight to the heart of the what it means to speak the modern tongue. From the shores of the Angles tribal past, we view the grand sweep: the pubs of their present, the ghetto and the cafe, the pawn shop and the the streets of Coney Island, the volcanic experience of Shakespeare (who in a short span created many thousands of words)--all of this and more alongside us as we speak--until we glimpse the moveable boundaries of our own era atop the shoulders of history. An incredible achievement
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