Graham Downs reviewed Prodigal Tongue by Lynne Murphy
Review of 'Prodigal Tongue' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Anyone who’s remotely interested in the differences between US and UK English, how they diverged, and the extent of those differences, should absolutely read this book!
I learnt a lot. The differences go way beyond some simple spelling issues, or a few words and phrases that have different meanings on either side of the Atlantic.
It’s written by an American linguist who’s been living in the UK for the past twenty years, so she’s uniquely qualified to write about the subject. She also spent some time living in South Africa in the 1990s, so she knows our history too, and can draw comparisons between the divergence of US and UK English, and that of, say, Afrikaans and Dutch. Which was helpful, and very interesting.
The author busts plenty of myths about what’s “American” and what’s “British”, and she speaks from a point of view that’s often sympathetic to Americans and …
Anyone who’s remotely interested in the differences between US and UK English, how they diverged, and the extent of those differences, should absolutely read this book!
I learnt a lot. The differences go way beyond some simple spelling issues, or a few words and phrases that have different meanings on either side of the Atlantic.
It’s written by an American linguist who’s been living in the UK for the past twenty years, so she’s uniquely qualified to write about the subject. She also spent some time living in South Africa in the 1990s, so she knows our history too, and can draw comparisons between the divergence of US and UK English, and that of, say, Afrikaans and Dutch. Which was helpful, and very interesting.
The author busts plenty of myths about what’s “American” and what’s “British”, and she speaks from a point of view that’s often sympathetic to Americans and all the flack they get.
In fact, as a self-confessed pedant, I will admit to feeling a little uncomfortable on more than one occasion. But that’s a good thing, because all good art makes you feel things.
The writing feels a bit ranty sometimes, poking fun at British people for all their misconceptions and pointing out how idiotic some of them are. But then you realise she isn’t really ranting at those of us who speak UK English; she’s just defending US English as an entirely valid form, and calling us out sometimes for our intolerance of the way they use a language that’s supposed to be bringing us together instead of tearing us apart.
All the differences are especially poignant to me as an author, when I hear about authors from different countries making a point of trying to write in American English, so as not to alienate their US audiences. The thing is, I now realise that they’re nowhere near getting it right, because as the author points out, there’s no way you can pretend to know all the intricacies and nuances of American English unless you’ve actually spent a considerable amount of time in America. Americans probably laugh at those authors.
Not that British people are the only ones to blame, of course: Americans have plenty of misconceptions themselves.
The only issue I have with this book is with the formatting of the ebook edition (at least, the one I read on Scribd). There are loads of footnotes and references in this book, which is good, but the ebook edition appears to have been put together by someone who doesn’t really understand the format. Below each of these references, there’s a horizontal rule that spans the width of the screen. Which I suppose would be fine for a print book, where you can control where sentences and paragraphs will end on a page, but in the ebook it means having them in the middle of screens. Often in the middle of sentences, so you see something like, “According to John Smith’s paper,[22]{HR}{CR}{LF}{BLANKLINE} the usage of...”
It’s really jarring!
There’s also a reference to another chapter on a particular page number, which was obviously taken straight out of the print edition, because page numbers mean nothing in an ebook.
Now, these things are obviously none of the author’s fault (except that she shouldn’t’ve outsourced such an important thing as book formatting to a third party, and should’ve self-published like all the “cool kids” are doing these days), but they still affect one’s overall enjoyment of her product.
No matter. Now that I’ve told you about them, they might be less noticeable to you, and you can get on with the business of appreciating the amazing book that this author has produced. In fact, I’ll reprise my opening statement: if you speak English, you should read this book.
Edit: Somebody replied to me on Twitter to say that the format of the references, as well as the page reference, are perfectly fine in the Kindle Edition, so maybe it's a Scribd-specific issue, and you won't experience it.
Click here to find out where you can get your hands on a copy: books2read.com/u/4A7ZAe
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