Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling [Hardcover]

David Wolman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 7, 2008 | ISBN-10: 006136925X | ISBN-13: 978-0061369254 | Edition: First Edition

Righting the Mother Tongue tells the cockamamie story of English spelling. When did ghost acquire its silent 'h'? Will cyberspace kill the one in rhubarb? And was it really rocket scientists who invented spell-check?

Seeking to untangle the twisted story of English spelling, David Wolman takes us on a wordly adventure from English battlefields to Google headquarters. Along the way, he pickets with spelling reformers outside the national spelling bee, visits the town in Belgium, not England, where the first English books were printed, and takes a road-trip with the boss at Merriam-Webster Inc. The journey is punctuated by spelling battles waged by the likes of Samuel Johnson, Noah Webster, Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie and the members of today's Simplified Spelling Society.

Rich with history, pop culture, curiosity and humor, Righting the Mother Tongue explores how English spelling came to be, traces efforts to mend the code and imagines the shape of tomorrow's words.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The lively, informative book is full of evidence/cocktail party fodder proving that the English spelling system is a hopeless tangle of French, Dutch, Latin, German and much, much more and really makes no sense at all. (Portland Tribune )

An intellectual travelogue across the centuries that also ranges geographically from the Litchfield haunts of Dr. Johnson, creator of the first great English dictionary, to the Silicon Valley home of Les Earnest, the progenitor of computerized spell-checking. (Wall Street Journal )

“An engaging ramble through our orthographic thickets” (Boston Globe )

A lively, engaging look at the idiosyncratic derivations and permutations of spelling in the English language. (Seattle Post Intelligencer )

“Sprightly history that sensibly balances the merits of standardization against the forces for freedom.” (Kirkus Reviews )

“A funny and fact-filled look at our astoundingly inconsistent written language, from Shakespeare to spell-check.” (St. Petersburg Times )

About the Author

David Wolman is the author of A Left-Hand Turn Around the World and writes for magazines such as Wired, Newsweek, Outside, National Geographic Traveler and New Scientist. He lives in Portland, OR.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonian; First Edition edition (October 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006136925X
• ISBN-13: 978-0061369254
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,485,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Wolman is an author and award-winning journalist. He is a contributing editor for Wired, and he has written for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Outside, Nature, Time, and Newsweek. A former Fulbright journalism fellow in Japan and a graduate of Stanford University's journalism program, he is also a recipient of the Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship.

His latest book, The End of Money, has "gonzo brilliance," says The Guardian. It is a globetrotting exploration of a topic that many readers have always taken for granted: the cash in their pockets.

Wolman's 2008 Wired story about activists in Egypt using Facebook to mobilize against the regime was one of the earliest pieces of long-form journalism about what would come to be known as the Arab Spring. He followed that up with an e-book, "The Instigators," which was nominated for a 2012 National Magazine Award for reporting.

His first book, "A Left-Hand Turn Around the World," was published by Da Capo Press (hardcover 2005, paperback 2006). "Righting the Mother Tongue," was published by HarperCollins (hardcover 2008, paperback 2009). Visit his website at www.david-wolman.com and follow him on Twitter at @davidwolman.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Gud Funn, Gudd Fwn, Gwdd Fun, Goode Fun, Good Fun, Gd Fn July 24, 2008

By Grey Wolffe VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

However you spell it, this is good fun if you like linguistics, etymology and orthography. Starting with the basics of Wessex (West Saxon) Old English (there never was an 'e' on old until Victorian times) the language grew from the influx of Norman-French (from William the Conqueror), and all the languages of the Empire (pundit, serendipity, kiosk). But how did the spelling of the actual words come to be?

Prior to the printed book, almost all books were hand scribed by monks in Scriptorium. (The building at Oxford where the OED was created was named so by sir James Murray.) Each monk spelled a word as close as he could to the way it sounded (phonetically). Since there were so few readers, it didn't really matter.

Once Guttenberg had devised his type-set printing, word spellings became much more important. The English (King James of 1611) translated Bible had different spellings for the same word, sometimes on the same page. As an aside, one of the reason we have odd spellings like 'ghost' instead of 'gost' was that the first English books were typeset in Bruges where the major language was Flemish. Typesetters made the decisions on the spot of how to spell a word (phonetically of course), and so used spellings they were comfortable with.

The first major shift to "standardize" English spellings, was by Dr. Samuel Johnson. Dr.Johnson's "Dictionary" was first published in 1755 and immediately became the "base line" (or war line) by which the budding science of 'philology' and 'lexicographers' (makers of dictionaries) fought the battle of the silent 'h' (in Ghost and Rhubarb) and silent 'gh' (in though and fought).

Noah Webster started the transatlantic lexicography war when he published his 'American Dictionary of the English Language' in 1828.... Webster sought to 'americanize' English by changing gaol to jail, publick to public, centre to center and dropping the 'u' in honor, valor, color,etc.
This set off the longest running battle between the two major centers or centres of the English (?) speaking world.

In the late 1880's a group of men at Oxford, decided that the language needed to be standardized, because of the coming of government sanctioning of 'public' education. How to teach spelling and word meanings when there was no 'body' (such as the 'Academie Francais) to arbitrate the language. So the idea of the 'Oxford English Dictionary' was born. It took almost thirty years before it was completed in 1928 and it immediately became the standard for all publication in the UK and the British Empire. Americans are still making their own decisions.

With the advent of the internet and email, and especially cell phone 'texting', the language is once again developing a 'personalized' orthography. While there are accepted shorthand words such as Gr8 and BFF (best friends forever), there are a myriad of variations between friends and age groups. (No teenager wants to use the same shorthand as their parents, duh! how groudy!)

For those who enjoy a good story is how things came about (the eschatology) of any genre, this is a fun read (or reed or rede or ...

Zeb Kantrowitz Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An everyman's journey through English spelling August 6, 2008

By Sanpete

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Here's author David Wolman's own explanation of what this book is:

"This book is my journey into the past and future of English spelling. It's an everyman's review of how the words of our language acquired their current form, a study of the quest to change the spelling code, and an exploration of spelling convention and innovation in the digital age."

That sums it up pretty well. It's an everyman's book in the double sense that it's written by a nonexpert and is pitched at people who want an overview with interesting facts, ideas and illustrative detail but not extended scholarly analysis. The information is generally derived from authoritative sources, often books written by language scholars for a general audience. Explanations are lucid.

Emphasis should be given to "my journey," as a fair amount of the book revolves around Wolman's trips to places of significance in his take on the history and future of English spelling. He travels to several places in Britain where events such as the Norman Conquest and the English translation of the Bible occurred, takes a side trip to Germany and Belgium, homes of Gutenberg and the first English printed book, visits the home of famous American dictionary author Noah Webster, the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the home of Google in Silicon Valley, and other places along the way, usually accompanied by an expert who helps explain the significance of the events related to the places. It's like one of those BBC TV history specials without a camera crew.

His journey is also personal in the sense that he weaves in his own history with spelling, from a lifelong self-perception as a bad speller to his participation in a local spelling bee....

The narrative is leisurely and somewhat rambling, in a pleasant way, with frequent detours from one thread to another.

A major thread throughout the book concerns the controversy over how much emphasis should be put on proper spelling and what proper spelling should be understood to be. Should we care if a word is spelled unconventionally as long as we can easily understand it? Is it desirable or possible to reform spelling? Wolman seems to side with a laissez-faire approach, but he doesn't call for less emphasis on correct spelling in school or the like, so it isn't clear is he has a fully worked out position of his own.

Wolman finally considers reasons to worry about where spelling is headed but basically ends up at "the kids are all right." (I was hoping for some more robust tying up of ends about the controversies of spelling.)

The book is enjoyable and interesting, a fairly quick read.

Quibbles and ruminations inspired by the book

Wolman sees the importance of the spelling differences between words like 'desert' and 'dessert', but he doesn't see the significance of the differences between 'hare-brained' and 'hair-brained', or 'strait-jacket'/'strait-laced' and 'straight-jacket'/'straight-laced' (68). I think the differences in the latter cases are significant, as they convey different root images or ideas. Having the brain of a small animal is a different idea than having a brain with some quality related to hair (whether it be that hair is all there is in the head, or the thinness of a hair, or whatever). Both might naturally mean "stupid," but by different routes. Similarly, the idea of narrow or tight in 'strait' is very different than whatever might be conveyed by 'straight' in the examples given. ('Straight' actually works with 'straight-laced' but in its own distinctive way.)

Wolman suggests that spelling may change more quickly because of the internet, which is largely unedited. He cites in particular Google's enabling bad or alternative spelling with its "Did you mean ...?" search function. Things do change faster and and faster, and he may be right, but I think it could work more the other way, that bad spellers will now be reminded of correct spellings by Google, and by spellcheckers, which are more and more integrated into web-related applications, and have been improving my spelling, at least. I think these things may actually tend to slow the change of most spelling.

There are of course practical benefits to uniformity of spelling, which requires a common standard, but it feels like more is involved. Excuse the image, but I once had a very learned professor who said misspelling is like picking your nose in public, which I take to mean that it's a violation of manners. It is curious that we, or some of us, at least, do tend to feel about misspelling the way we might about holding our dinner fork with a fist while eating. But even if they're sometimes arbitrary, there is something to be said for having good manners about our forks and so on, and for drawing some limited inferences about people based their adherence to such niceties. They show something about our training and our willingness or ability to participate in social forms, rather like a dance we're all supposed to know the steps to and perform together. The steps may sometimes be arbitrary, but there's a grace in knowing them and doing them correctly. Read more ›

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A fun read for word nerds August 20, 2008

By Alexis Coxon VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This is an interesting -- though not totally captivating -- read about the history of spelling in the English language. While, as a professional copy editor and general fan of etymology, good spelling, good grammar and all things word-related, I enjoyed it, it may be a bit dry for those who don't already have an interest in this area.

The book starts with the history of the English language and continues through the days of Noah Webster, early-20th-century spelling reformers and up till texting and the Internet (and their effect on the English language).

The cover design could be more attractive -- I don't find it particularly compelling or even reflective of the book's content. And this is definitely no "Eats, Shoots and Leaves." But overall, if you're really fascinated by spelling and how modern English came to be the way it is, you'll find this a fun read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and informative August 21, 2008

By pm444

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I thoroughly enjoyed this brief, well-written history of the development of English spelling and its often bizarre conventions. While the thread that ties the chapters together is the spelling of English words, the author successfully incorporates fascinating bits of linguistics, cultural and social history, and biography to bring his subject to life.

The author's style is fresh and engaging and the book is very readable and in fact difficult to put down. I've read many books about linguistics and language history, and most suffer from a scholarly tone that sometimes borders on the pedantic. This book is a welcome change from that, and will appeal both to the general reader as well as those of us who love reading about language and language change.

While the author is not a professional linguist, he includes footnotes for each chapter and it's obvious that he researched his topic before writing the book. Highly recommended!