The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

In the opening chapter of The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way, author Bill Bryson argues that “more than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest, it sometimes seems, try to” (1). He is alluding to the fact that advertisements, directions on packages, and even road signs around the world are often written in English and feature mangled syntax when aimed at non-native speakers. Further signifying the degree to which English has become a global language, it is used as the agreed upon language of discourse by the airlines of 157 nations (2-3). Likewise, English is commonly used by international corporations and governance organizations even when English-speaking countries are not involved. Because the demand for learning English across the globe is so high, Bryson argues that the language has become “one of the world’s great growth industries” (3).

Throughout the chapter, Bryson compares and contrasts English to other world languages and points to three aspects which set it apart—the most blatant of these being the richness of its vocabulary due to a history of colonization, conflict, and change (4). Because English vocabulary is so large, English speakers can use synonyms to make distinctions that may not be available in other languages (4).