The Adventure of English

The Adventure of English, by Melvyn Bragg, is a fascinating biography of the English language (the author claims that English can be viewed as a living organism - thus the term biography instead of history - and, in much of the book, the language's development and quest for survival assumes "living behaviour"). I thoroughly enjoyed this piece of philological / linguistic history that spans over 1500 years, from the invasion of the British Isles by Germanic tribes in the 5th century to the emergence and spreading of many different "families" of English from the 17th century onwards.

Ever since I saw "My Fair Lady" in the cinema when I was a child, I was mildly aware of the fact that most people in the UK speak "non-BBC English" and many have some difficulty in understanding what people from a different part of the country are saying (take Geordie, for instance). Since I moved here, however, I must say I'm truly amazed at the diversity of pronunciations, intonations, expressions and meanings I've found. In America everyone pretty much understands what any other fellow countryman says; around here, that is just not true.

Anyway, back to the book: the only flaw I found in it was the dismissive treatment given to my mother tongue: Portuguese. I think it should have been given as much importance as Spanish, French and German when other "universal" languages were addressed. Portuguese is still one of the most widely spoken languages on Earth (it ranks 7, after Chinese, Spanish, English, Bengali, Hindi/Urdu and Arabic) and it played a major role in the Great Age of Discovery (15th, 16th and 17th centuries), only rivaled by Spanish (the importance of English or German was yet to come about). Portuguese is spoken not only in Europe but also in Asia (India/Goa, China/Macau, East Timor), Africa (Angola, Mozambique, S.Tome e Principe, Guine Bissao, Cape Verde) and South America (Brazil); it has left its footprint on many languages around the world (for instance, arigato and pan in Japanese come from obrigado and pão in Portuguese, meaning Thank You and Bread, respectively) and has, like English, lead to the emmergence of many "families" of Portuguese all over the world.

A final offside remark: It's a pity that such a great book about language, written by a person who clearly loves words and understands the importance of their accuracy, refers to Brazil's (and South America's) bigest metropolis as São Paolo instead of São Paulo and claims that Portuguese and Spanish are "immediately mutually intelligible" !

Synopsis

English is the collective work of millions of people throughout the ages. It is democratic, ever-changing and ingenious in its assimilation of other cultures. English runs through the heart of world finance, medicine and the Internet and it is understood by around two thousand million people across the world. Yet it was very nearly wiped out in its early years. In this title Melvyn Bragg shows us the remarkable story of the English language: from its beginnings as a minor guttural Germanic dialect to its position today as a truly established global language. Embracing elements of Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi and Gullah, this 1500-year story covers a huge range of countries and peoples. "The Story of English" is not only a story of power, religion and trade, but also the story of people, and how their day-to-day lives shaped and continue to change the extraordinary language that is English.