Quite a bit has changed since this book was written; language has changed, attitudes towards language have changed, and culture overall has changed. Some pieces from this book have not aged well; it’s rather dismissive of some languages and cultures (weirdly judgmental over Japanese writing, for example) while being aggressively defensive of others. There is also little-to-no attention paid to the many additions given to English by marginalized communities; I was surprised to come across very little about the contributions of people of color have […]
“A Table of Alphabetical Hard Words”: Our First English Dictionary
The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson