Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue; The Untold History of English, by John McWhorter is the next book in my own personal rabbit trail into linguistics. Here, McWhorter explores alternative theories of the development of English that are not popular with mainstream views, but which he thinks make a lot of sense.
McWhorter addresses several issues in this book, one of which is why English developed the 'meaningless do.' English is the only modern language that sticks a 'do' in where none is needed. Why do we say do instead of just why say we? That's what other languages do! McWhorter points out that this isn't some fluke thing that just happened, as most English linguists view it, but that this peculiarity slipped into the language from types of Celtic, namely Welsh and Cornish. Other topics are why English uses the progressive 'ing' as in "I am going" instead of "I go" as present progressive. He points out the difference in English between saying I go and I am going. The first is used in a general, or habitual sense: On Saturday mornings, I go to the store, for example. But if someones asked me, "what are you doing right now?" I wouldn't answer: I go to the store, as in other languages. I would say: I am going to the store. This too is a hangover from Celtic languages. McWhorter also explores the impact that Old Norse had on English, a gift from those marauding Vikings.
Because of this McWhorter goes into the theory of how grammar was effected by invaders and traveling hordes of tribes. He doesn't only look at what happened in the case of English but travels all over the world to find similar developments in Africa, India and China. When adult speakers who are in the minority take over a land and intermarry, they tended to learn the new vocabulary for the most part (with some of their native vocabulary getting mixed in) and plug the new words into their own language's grammatical structure. So that a pidgeon language develops for the next generation who grows up hearing this type of English (in the case of our language) being spoken.
McWhorter also goes after the disproved but still popular notions developed by Safir and Whorf who, in their kind of PC overenthusiastic desire to paint the picture of the Noble Savage, attributed too much power to how language channels thoughts. McWhorter very neatly knocks down this approach to language which is based, in part, on misunderstanding of the languages. McWhorter points out that many linguists study English and European languages but are not so well versed in other languages like Celtic and its dialects or Hopi or Cree and so either dismiss the impact of the language as unimportant in the development of English (as in the case of Celtic) or romanticize the impact of the language as in the case of Native American tongues.
There's much more than this in this book. McWhorter, with each premise he explores, and in an entertaining way, explains it and then carefully analyzes just what is wrong with it. McWhorter is a wordsmith. He writes so cleverly and enjoyably, in such a witty, conversational style which is often pleasantly self-deprecating. He's a fun guy. He manages to make all this technical stuff amusing and engaging.
I learned a lot from this book. It gets two thumbs up from me!
If you want to read more 52 Books in 52 Weeks reviews, go here: .http://www.read52booksin52weeks.com/2011/07/bw-30-c-is-for-cara-black.html
This book sounds intriguing.
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