the mother tongue

A few days ago I started reading 'The Mother Tongue - English and how it got that way' by our dear old friend Bill Bryson. I have to admit 'The Lost Continent' wasn't one of my favourite books but this one seems to be quite different. It has the perfect combination to keep me reading: it's both fun and interesting.

As the title indicates, the book is all about the English language: it's history, eccentricities and the sheer fun of this language. It's not only a very uselful and informative book but also a very entertaining one. Bryson also talks about language in general and compares English to many other languages in the world.

I'm only into chapter three, but I would like to share some interesting and amusing facts with you, which you might have not heard about before. So here we go:

• English has far more words in common use (200,000) than German (184,000) and French (only 100,000). So what sets English apart from other languages is the richness of its vocabulary.
• The Gaelic speakers of Scotland have a word for the itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whiskey (it's sgriob).
• The Arabs are said to have 6,000 words for camels and camel equipment.
• Try to pronouce this: "beaudhchais" (Gaelic for 'thank you'). - It's simply "bekkas".
• In Japanese, the word for foreigner means "stinking of foreign hair"
• What is a 'Mexican carwash'? - Leaving your car out in the rain.
• A Korean has to choose between one of siy verb suffixes to accord with the status of the person addressed.
• A Welsh speaker must choose between five ways of saying than: na, n', nag, nwy, or yn fwy.
• Irish Gaelic possesses no equivalent for yes and no.
• The Japanese do not distinguish between singular and plural.