{"product_id":"2026200009890-secondhand-the-mother-tongue-english-how-it-got-that-way","title":"The Mother Tongue: English \u0026 How It Got That Way","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good to fair. Paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnglish is the world's most widely spoken language, yet its origins are a glorious tangle of theft, accident, and reinvention — and Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue chronicles this extraordinary story with wit and infectious curiosity. From the guttural consonants of Anglo-Saxon to the linguistic plunder of the Norman Conquest, Bryson traces the chaotic evolution of a language that has swallowed words from virtually every culture it has ever encountered, producing a vocabulary richer and more contradictory than any other on Earth.\n\nBryson argues with characteristic verve that English's greatest strength lies precisely in its lawlessness — its stubborn refusal to conform to tidy grammatical rules. Drawing on history, etymology, and cognitive science, he illuminates why English spelling is a nightmare, why accents diverge so sharply, and how a language born in a damp corner of northern Europe came to dominate the globe. Part linguistic history, part cultural comedy, The Mother Tongue leaves the reader with an entirely new appreciation for the strange, magnificent chaos of the words we use every day.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49130611114203,"sku":"2026200009890-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/0d8f572b-a6bf-44ad-a405-b0effaf5247e.png?v=1786587488","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200009890-secondhand-the-mother-tongue-english-how-it-got-that-way","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}