Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English

 

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English, by John McWhorter, chronicles the history (of the changes) to the English language.  McWhorter takes on the on the perennial mystery of why Anglo-Saxon (Old English) so seemingly Germanic, evolved into Middle English (Chaucer) the earliest form of our modern language.  For us, the latter is incomprehensible, while the former, although a challenge, is modern English.

McWhorter has many theories, some of which cancel each other out.  All involve the influence of other languages and their speakers on Anglo-Saxon.  Old Norse, Celtic, and the usual suspect Norman French, with its wealth of Greek and Latin loan words, contributed.  But for McWhorter, the Old Norse and Celtic influence did the most to “simplify” English.

But really, McWhorter finally tells us, the “simplicity” of modern English’s foundation was laid long ago in Proto-Germanic, the penultimate language before Proto-Indo European.  Our paucity of cases, neutered nouns, and lack of key inflections, is a seed within the bud of German itself.

Probably it is best to think of this book not as a Grand Theory of the evolution of English, but a series of chatty theories.