The Mother Tongue Audiobook By Bill Bryson cover art

The Mother Tongue

Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Mother Tongue

By: Bill Bryson
Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $24.29

Buy for $24.29

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

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.

©1990 Bill Bryson (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers
Europe Linguistics Social Sciences Funny Witty Imperialism
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup
Fascinating Language History • Entertaining Etymology • Excellent Pronunciation • Educational Content • Insightful Research
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
The narrator is OK. Rather monotone, but OK.
This title was OK until about Chapter 5 when variant pronunciations were SPELLED out. List after list.

entertaining but

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Some of the chapters have too much spelling of words to be pleasant to listen to. I prefer John McWhorter’s books on English. I had hoped for more charming stories of English vs. American usage, but there wasn’t enough, and I was already familiar with a lot of the points he made.

Out of date, some tedious spelling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I think that this would be a great book to read, if you are into the root and meaning of words in the English language, however, in listening to it, you don't get the time to pause and reflect on how you read/speak/hear the words. Also, there are countless times when a word will be spelled out (in English and other languages), and these examples cannot be fully digested audibly.

What does Stephen McLaughlin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Obviously the reader, through research and practice, is able to pronounce difficult words in arcane and foreign languages that I would merely stumble through.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No. There's no plot.

Just not a book to be listened to

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

If you have any interest in language, you need to read this book. fascinating and informative, with a bit of humor too.

very interesting!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I loved this book. Bill Bryson is incredible. Narrator was great too.

Wish I could say more but gotta keep running.

Beautiful analysis of this silly language

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

English is not my first language. And listening to this book I realized spelling may not be my forte. If its a similar struggle for you, you may enjoy the ebook better.

Probably should have gotten the ebook

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

If you are a Bill Bryson fan, I just cannot recommend this book.

How could the performance have been better?

There should be a rule that Bill Bryson MUST narrate his own books.

There should be a rule...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

First of all didn't realize the original date as 1990. Dan Quayle mis-speaking when we had such a rich source in Bush 43. Doesn't work well as audible due to the endless amount of words spelled out. And often so many examples were used for one phenomenon that it was a little painful. Otherwise some great information.

Not best as an audible book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Not really a history but maybe all the more interesting because of it. Bryson being Bryson.

Fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I really love to listen to books written by Bryson. He knows how to tell a story and make you enjoy and cherish each and every moment of it. Every time I finish one of his books I think "ok - which one will I listen now?". You can't go wrong with a Bryson.

Bryson - the most enjoyable way to learn something

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews