Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling | 
 enlarge | Author: David Wolman
Publisher: Collins
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 35145
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 006136925X
Dewey Decimal Number: 421.52
EAN: 9780061369254
ASIN: 006136925X
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Righting the Mother Tongue tells the cockamamie story of English spelling. When did ghost acquire its silent 'h'? Will cyberspace kill the one in rhubarb? And was it really rocket scientists who invented spell-check? Seeking to untangle the twisted story of English spelling, David Wolman takes us on a wordly adventure from English battlefields to Google headquarters. Along the way, he pickets with spelling reformers outside the national spelling bee, visits the town in Belgium, not England, where the first English books were printed, and takes a road-trip with the boss at Merriam-Webster Inc. The journey is punctuated by spelling battles waged by the likes of Samuel Johnson, Noah Webster, Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie and the members of today's Simplified Spelling Society. Rich with history, pop culture, curiosity and humor, Righting the Mother Tongue explores how English spelling came to be, traces efforts to mend the code and imagines the shape of tomorrow's words.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 40 more reviews...
Wonderfully weird book about a truly weird language October 24, 2008
This is an odd book about what has to be one of the most disjointed languages ever. English drew heavily from two very different linguistic bases--Germanic and Romance languages. The result--a language that frequently is at a loss to express itself phonetically. Many of the rigid, relentless spellings driven into our heads by a whole host of inflexible teachers have only been around for a short time. Way back when, printers changed spellings of words between pages and paragraphs, often in response to how many letters they had at hand. The language's spelling has been unstable ever since.
This book does a great job of revealing the history odd quirks of spelling and usage, particularly showing how English and...well, "American" have gone their separate ways. Funny, engrossing. And a perfect ego salve for those of us who still can't spell worth a....
 A fun, cogent, down-to-earth book about the evolution of the English language September 26, 2008
David Wolman's "Righting the Mother Tongue" is a fun, funny, cogent history of the English language, and various orthographic efforts to control or standardize its evolution and expression. Some of these efforts have had far-reaching impacts -- the standardization of Old English near the dawn of the Renaissance, the influence of the King James Bible, the publication of Webster's Dictionary -- while others are consigned to the back-burners of history, quaint, fusty efforts to corral in and control a notoriously far-flung and deliriously haphazard, polyglot language.
Generally speaking, Wolman's tone is inclusive and accessible - the book's strongest point is that it is not a deathly-dull academic tome. You still have to be a bit of a language geek to get into it, but even so, the freshness and humorous tone of Wolman's writing helps lay readers stay awake during these explorations of rather obscure intellectual issues. Although I'm sure academic partisans who are more versed in these issues may be more critical in their appraisal, I found Wolman's writing very engaging and informative. He has a talent for condensing complex topics without losing the historical core of the issues, and presents a coherent narrative of the academic issues, giving what seems like a very even-handed overview of the debates between inclusiveness and ivory-tower linguistic preservationism.
When Wolman does express his own views, the tone of the writing veers into breathlessness and -- fusty old fart that I am -- I find his impulse towards come-what-may acceptance of whatever changes we encounter to be a bit too lax. (I don't think the abbreviations of cell phone texting are a development to be cheered on: they seem generally regressive and infantile, and are a serious debasement of our language.) But bah-humbugging proclamations aside, I found this to be a very enjoyable, informative book. Definitely recommended! (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain book reviews)
Awesome Historical Delve Into the English Language September 25, 2008
This is a great book for any grammar/spelling freak. I learned a lot from this book, including the Simplified Spelling Board (which Teddy Roosevelt was a proponent of) wanted to make spelling simpler. They also argued how our language is so complex, that it is almost hysterical. For example, using the gh from cough, o in women, and the ti from nation, you could pronounce ghoti as fish. Great point!
It also delves into the fact that no other languages use "the," "is," "a," etc. The main point of this book is to point out how obsolete our language really is, and how English English and American English are now two separate languages, citing "catalog" and "catalogue" among the many words that we used in an attempt to separate ourselves from the British.
It's a comical read (for those of you who would get it) and a very historical, fact filled one as well.
However, if it's not your style, then it's not your style. Not recommended for everyone.
A very interesting book September 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
You know, my father used to drive people crazy by complaining that so many words in the English language are not spelled the way they sound. Well, it turns out that my father was in good company. Throughout the history of the English language, many great men of letters complained about spellings, and have sought to reform the language to make it easier to understand. In this fascinating book, author David Wolman tells the tortured and twisted history of the English language, and the many attempts to reform its spelling.
Overall, I found this to be a very interesting book. The author takes what could easily have been a boring subject, and makes it come alive, as he tells of his own peregrinations as he works to unravel the history of why we spell words the way we do. It was so interesting, the way that men fought bitter and usually unsuccessful battles to change spelling, while often it changed of its own accord, unmarked and unheralded.
This is a very interesting book on what turns out to be a very interesting subject. If you are interested in the written word, then you really should get this book. I highly recommend it!
A fun history of English without the English teacher September 21, 2008
The English language, as we know it, has a few rules and a lot of exceptions. 'Righting the Mother Tongue' will fill in all the gaps as to why we spell things the way we do. But rather than a boring list of words with brief histories and boring explanations, this book takes us on an entertaining journey of English. After living in Australia for several years, words that used to flow from my keyboard I now stumble on (honor-honour, color-colour,) and I sometimes have difficulty pronouncing aluminum (aluminium). Its only a small ocean, the Atlantic, how are we so different from Mother England? You really want to know and be entertained along the way? Read this book. The author has done exhaustive research, and has included footnotes for those of us interested in further pursuit of facts.
The English language is a work in progress. This book helps us understand that it is a living, evolving thing with many influences. If you like words or history, you will definitely enjoy this book.
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