书名：Mother Tongue: The Story of the English Language 

母语：英语的故事

难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数1190L

作者：Bill Bryson比尔·布莱森

出版社名称：Penguin

出版时间：2016

语种：英文 

ISBN：9780141040080

商品尺寸：19.3 x 1.8 x 12.7 cm

包装：平装

页数：288 （以实物为准）

Mother Tongue: The Story of the English Language《母语：英语的故事》是超级人气畅销书《万物简史》作者比尔•布莱森作品。他是当今英语世界非常多产且又“超能逗乐”的游记作家之一，风头之健不亚于当年的“披头士”乐队（有数据可考）。目前已经出了19本书，畅销的有《母语：英语的故事》《万物简史》《东西莫辨逛欧洲》《比尔•布莱森英文超正典》等。2006年，英国前首相布莱尔约见了他。 推荐理由： 1.英式笑话风格的英语百科全书； 2.谈古道今、旁征博引、及追根究底的方式谈论英语，简直是一本信息丰富的百科全书； 3.翻译家陆谷孙教授曾公开表露过对布莱森的欣赏和钦佩之情，高呼：“快把布莱森的作品介绍给中国读者！”  精彩书评： “布莱森将英语的趣闻与盎格鲁－撒克逊的历史文化融合在一起，在道出英语优势的同时，也显出了英语的古老与活力。”——《出版人周刊》 “全世界超过30亿人说英语，很多人也会讲讲有关英语的故事，但是鲜有像布莱森这么独特的。阅读《布莱森英语简史》，仿佛一场美妙的旅行，一碟母语的可口甜点。”——《纽约时报书评》 “《布莱森英语简史》充满了生动的奇闻轶事……布莱森，这位英语的死忠粉丝把英语的灵活、丰富、博大展现得淋漓尽致。”——《波士顿环球报》 “寓教于乐，引人入胜！”——《洛杉矶时报》

Who would have thought that a book about the English language would be so entertaining? Certainly not this grammar-allergic reviewer, but The Mother Tongue pulls it off admirably. Bill Bryson—a zealot—is the right man for the job. Who else could rhapsodise about “the colourless murmur of the schwa” with a straight face? It is his unflagging enthusiasm, seeping from between every sentence, that carries the book. Bryson displays an encyclopedic knowledge of his topic, and this inevitably encourages a light tone; the more you know about a subject, the more absurd it becomes. No jokes are necessary, the facts do well enough by themselves, and Bryson supplies tens per page. As well as tossing off gems of fractured English (from a Japanese eraser: “This product will self-destruct in Mother Earth.”), Bryson frequently takes time to compare the idiosyncratic tongue with other languages. Not only does this give a laugh (one word: Welsh), and always shed considerable light, it also makes the reader feel fortunate to speak English.   Review“Not only fascinating but extremely funny.”  —Angus Deayton “The sort of linguistics I like, anecdotal, full of revelations, and with not one dull paragraph.”  —Ruth Rendell Sunday Times “A gold mine of language-anecdote, information, curiosity. A surprise on every page... enthralling.”  — Observer “Delightful, amusing and provoking... A joyful celebration of our wonderful language, which is packed with curiosities and enlightenment on every page.”  —Sunday Express “A delightful survey— though with its good humour, wealth of anecdote, and boyish enthusiasm, ‘romp’ would be a better word.”  —David Crystal

全球有近10亿人使用英语或学习英语，每天我们都在努力K英文、说英文，但有多少人真正了解，英文是怎么回事？历史上的第一句英文说了什么？英文为什么有那么多没有道理的规则，为什么“四”是four，“四十”就不是fourty？同样说英语的英国人和美国人，为什么也会鸡同鸭讲？Mother Tongue: The Story of the English Language《母语：英语的故事》可以回答你！ 闻名世界的旅游作家比尔•布莱森扒完《万物简史》再揭英语老底！在Mother Tongue: The Story of the English Language《母语：英语的故事》一书中，比尔•布莱森摇身一变，化身语言历史学家，谈古道今、旁征博引、追根究底对世界上非常成功的营销案例——英语——空前大起底。 Mother Tongue: The Story of the English Language《母语：英语的故事》不仅是一本另类的英语学习读物，它更是一部欧洲文化进化史，一本信息丰富的英语百科全书，当然你也可以当它是一本英式极品笑话大合集来阅读。总之，阅读Mother Tongue让你从10亿英语使用者中“脱颖而出”。  “More than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest, it sometimes seems, try to...” Only Bill Bryson could make a book about the English language so entertaining. With his boundless enthusiasm and restless eye for the absurd, this is his astonishing tour of English. From its mongrel origins to its status as the world’s most-spoken tongue; its apparent simplicity to its deceptive complexity; its vibrant swearing to its uncertain spelling and pronunciation, Bryson covers all this as well as the many curious eccentricities that make it as maddening to learn as it is flexible to use. Bill Bryson’s classic Mother Tongue is a highly readable and hilarious tale of how English came to be the world’s language. 

比尔•布莱森（Bill Bryson），当今英语世界非常多产且“超能逗乐”的游记作家之一，诙谐嘲谑的风格堪称一绝。作品包括旅游类随笔、科普著作等，其中《万物简史》《母语：英语的故事》《“小不列颠”札记》《一脚踩进小美国》销量逾百万册，一直雄踞《纽约时报》《泰晤士报》畅销书榜。 2004年，《万物简史》获得英国皇家学会安万特奖。 1951年出生于美国艾奥瓦州，21岁起，开始在世界各地旅行。1977年，定居伦敦，自此在英国生活了近二十年，曾任职于《泰晤士报》与《独立报》，同时也为《纽约时报》《国家地理》撰文。 2005-2011年，担任英国杜伦大学校长，且被众多大学授予荣誉学位。 2006年，获得英女王颁发的“不列颠帝国勋章”之殊荣。 2005年，设立布莱森奖，以鼓励科学创新的青少年。 Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and grew up there, but has spent most of his adult life in Britain. He has worked for a number of newspapers, including The Times and the Independent. His books on the English language include Mother Tongue and Troublesome Words. Bill Bryson is the author of several bestsellers including The Lost Continent, Neither Here Nor There, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, Notes from a Big Country, Down Under, A Short History of Nearly Everything, One Summer: America 1927 and his memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. His most recent bestseller is The Road to Little Dribbling. 

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