The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

Describe the evolutionary change that took place between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons that allowed for more precise human speech. How does this evolutionary change relate to cultural changes such as the Great Vowel Shift?

Provide a historical example of a minority language being suppressed by their respective government. How is this language being treated today?

Trace the main three invasions of the British Isles and how they affected the development of the English language. Pick an English word and trace its origin to one or more of the dialects or languages resulting from the invasions (i.e., the Germanic dialects of the Anglo-Saxons, the Old Norse of the Scandinavian Vikings, and the French dialect of the Normans).

Describe the five ways in which words have become part of the English language according to Bryson. Pick an English word and try to parse its origin according to one or more of these five ways.

Why is it so difficult to determine the number of English-speakers in the world? Why are there so many English-speakers according to Bryson?

Compare and contrast the three main lexicographers discussed in Chapter 10 and how their respective English dictionaries differed.

Discuss why English became more uniform instead of divergent following the massive wave of immigration to the United States in the late 19th-early 20th centuries.

Why does Bryson believe pictographic-ideographic systems like Chinese and Japanese are limited in their ability to produce word puzzles and text codes? Do you agree with him? Why or why not?