Earlier this month, I decided to focus on different topics in my reading and other endeavors each month. August became the Language Arts month, in which I read, among others, two of the required course books, studied Linguistics online, and also began learning Greek.
It is interesting to have everything come together. Both my Applied Linguistics and TESOL classes touched upon the myriad of inconsistencies in the English language, while in The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson attempted to explain why and how those inconsistencies got there. Bryson also touches upon how unregulated English is—a point covered more thoroughly in Dreyer’s English—compared to, say, the heavily regulated French language (a fact that was also discussed in a few of my French lessons). Both The Mother Tongue and Lingo note that Lithuanian is the closest living relative to the original Proto-Indo-European language, from whence the majority of Western languages developed. Icelandic, however, is one of the least changed languages.
In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott, explains the actual process of writing, while Writers and Lovers explores, in a story, how writing affects the overall life of the writer. Both provide excellent advice not just for writing, but for life. Namely: follow your dreams, don’t give up, take everything little by little, and have good friends.
I always learned that if a piece of information appearing in three or more resources is general knowledge, or at least it carries more clout. So indeed reading the same tidbits over and over has ingrained them in my memory for at least the near future!
List of August Books on English, Grammar, Writing and Languages
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- Writers & Lovers, the only fiction on this month’s list, is an addictive novel that basically says you can make it as writer if you just stick with it, just like anything in life and love.
- Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, is well, just that. It was required reading in the original Alternative Graduate Program. In it Lamott explains what it takes to be a writer, based on her years of experience. In the book, she also provides handy tips that can be applied to other tasks in your life as well, including the namesake tip to take any task “bird by bird”.
- Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style is the grammar book you wished your teacher used in school! Written by and from the viewpoint of a copy editor. It is written very humorously and matter-of-fact, with a slight obsession for footnotes (so be prepared to do a lot of flipping back and forth!) The book includes excellent and comprehensive practical grammar and writing tips, so I decided to add as required reading to the program (in place of the Grammar Girl podcast). The book also taught me that I use a lot more British spellings than I thought, and despite Dreyer’s claim that “No American can get away with calling a z a “zed”, I can.
- The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way is mostly a history of the English language, brought to you by the man who also wrote a history of nearly everything else. The book is interesting but can get a bit dry, particularly the second half of most chapters. As a learner of Dutch, I found the similarities to Anglo-Saxon and Old English interesting. The most entertaining chapters cover the differences between British and American English and, of course, swearing. Bryson’s discussion on the future of English as an international language (a topic also covered in my Applied Linguistics course) is also interesting, though a bit outdated given that the book was published 30 years ago!
- Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages sounds like my kind of book! Unfortunately, I was only able to finish about twenty percent of it before the month ended. What I do like though is how the chapters are short and each one describes a language like a member of a family (which I suppose they are). It also includes, at the end of each chapter, a note on which words were most shared from that language to English or other major languages, and one really cool and useful word from that language. I do intend to revisit and finish this book eventually.
- Words on the Move: Why English Won’t – and Can’t – Sit Still (Like, Literally) is another book I ran out of time to finish. But like the other books in this list, it takes a very humorous approach to the English language, its history, and its future. I only read the first couple of chapters, but it mentions twice in the first three pages the use of “literally”—is it incorrectness or evolution? I say it’s just plain annoying.
I hope you enjoyed August’s English lesson!
September will cover major world religions and religious texts.
The Alternative Graduate 