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sneakysquid's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
A fairly good pop linguistic book. As a note, this book focuses almost exclusively on British English from ENGLAND, a fact I did not realize until I had started. So note that some of the slang and examples referenced will mean nothing to you. Also, the book does not go through any effort to expand into non-British English slang, and only occasionally references French, Scottish or Irish books as expanded etymological references.
A specific example sits with me as I remember being really confused by the phrase a "common term fishwives" as I had never heard this term in my life and had a full paragraph based on the concept of 'gossip' that seemed to imply I should recognize it immediately.
A specific example sits with me as I remember being really confused by the phrase a "common term fishwives" as I had never heard this term in my life and had a full paragraph based on the concept of 'gossip' that seemed to imply I should recognize it immediately.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny and Miscarriage
bookwyrmreadstoomuch's review
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This book is well written and researched. Really enjoyed it and the information was good.
clarahrae's review
3.0
3.5 out of 5
NetGalley provided me an ARC of Mother Tongue and I was overjoyed to read this book.
Covering the evolution of women’s words, this book examines how modern words about womanhood have changed or been warped over time. With nine chapters that examine the largest aspects of being a woman, readers are guided through Old English, Latin, and all Germanic roots to better understand how language can be influenced by more than just words. This book was overall very informative and I learned a lot. The chapters particularly on menstruation and jobs were enlightening as these areas seem to be two of the biggest that men have influenced. Throughout the whole book, the element of patriarchy and misogyny is applied to the growth of many words, and while you don’t see it with much thought, once reviewed, it is impossible to see how men haven’t influenced women’s words.
While there was a lot that I liked about this book, there were often when I felt the writing was inaccessible as the author often wrote out sentences in Old English. In many cases, Old English would be followed by the Modern English translation. Still, rather than it is helpful, I found this repetition to be disorienting (especially since it wasn’t done every time, I would often spend time trying to figure out the Old English only to realize then the Modern translation was/wasn’t there). This and the overall writing style further highlight (at least to me) that being a subject-matter expert does not mean you should be a writer. Additionally, I understand the author is British and this book focuses on the Germanic and Latin/Greek roots for many of these words, but I felt like something was missing as there was no mention of how non-European languages might have influenced or affected the growth of women’s words. This is just a note, nothing against the book as again, it is about Modern English.
I would say my largest issue came at the end of this book, and it could have just been the way I read it, however the final chapter and the “After Words” briefly mentioned the increased use/desire for gender-neutral language. This wasn’t explored very much and it felt dismissive to mostly ignore this linguistic change in modern language and society. As a non-binary individual, I would have appreciated the author’s expanded thoughts on this matter and, potentially more in the “After Words” about how this neutrality change affects language and the importance of pronouns/inclusive language.
That being said, I learned a lot from this book and did enjoy it a lot. There were some gaps and as an ARC, I assume the final product will be edited a bit more, but I’m grateful for the chance to read this book early.
NetGalley provided me an ARC of Mother Tongue and I was overjoyed to read this book.
Covering the evolution of women’s words, this book examines how modern words about womanhood have changed or been warped over time. With nine chapters that examine the largest aspects of being a woman, readers are guided through Old English, Latin, and all Germanic roots to better understand how language can be influenced by more than just words. This book was overall very informative and I learned a lot. The chapters particularly on menstruation and jobs were enlightening as these areas seem to be two of the biggest that men have influenced. Throughout the whole book, the element of patriarchy and misogyny is applied to the growth of many words, and while you don’t see it with much thought, once reviewed, it is impossible to see how men haven’t influenced women’s words.
While there was a lot that I liked about this book, there were often when I felt the writing was inaccessible as the author often wrote out sentences in Old English. In many cases, Old English would be followed by the Modern English translation. Still, rather than it is helpful, I found this repetition to be disorienting (especially since it wasn’t done every time, I would often spend time trying to figure out the Old English only to realize then the Modern translation was/wasn’t there). This and the overall writing style further highlight (at least to me) that being a subject-matter expert does not mean you should be a writer. Additionally, I understand the author is British and this book focuses on the Germanic and Latin/Greek roots for many of these words, but I felt like something was missing as there was no mention of how non-European languages might have influenced or affected the growth of women’s words. This is just a note, nothing against the book as again, it is about Modern English.
I would say my largest issue came at the end of this book, and it could have just been the way I read it, however the final chapter and the “After Words” briefly mentioned the increased use/desire for gender-neutral language. This wasn’t explored very much and it felt dismissive to mostly ignore this linguistic change in modern language and society. As a non-binary individual, I would have appreciated the author’s expanded thoughts on this matter and, potentially more in the “After Words” about how this neutrality change affects language and the importance of pronouns/inclusive language.
That being said, I learned a lot from this book and did enjoy it a lot. There were some gaps and as an ARC, I assume the final product will be edited a bit more, but I’m grateful for the chance to read this book early.
excellent_taste's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Really excellent linguistic information!