01279cam a2200277 i 4500 934450466 TxAuBib 20230814120000.0 020814s2001||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9780380715435 paperback 0380715430 paperback TxAuBib rda Bryson, Bill, author. The mother tongue : English & how it got that way / Bill Bryson. New York : Perennial, 2001. 270 pages ; 21 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier "A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1990 by William Morrow in 1990--T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-255) and index. The author of the acclaimed The Lost Continent now steers us through the quirks and byways of the English language. We learn why island, freight, and colonel are spelled in such unphonetic ways, why four has a u in it but forty doesn't, plus bizarre and enlightening facts about some of the patriarchs of this peculiar language. 20230814. English language History. BTCLS