John Mcwhorter's Book

          In the book Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by John McWhorter, the author is attempting to explain how the meaningless do and ing ending came into the English language. The author also discusses his belief of the Celtic language influencing the English language. McWhorter through very humorous and sarcastic language criticizes other linguists who negate Celtic influence because they claim the Celts all were killed in a genocide, which is mentioned at the beginning of the book. He then goes on and tries to find similarities of the meaningless do in other languages around the world and does find some but not necessarily used as in the English language. The second assumption he talks about is that the meaningless do just happened to come up for no reason.

          One particular part that really caught my attention and made me remember previously discussed material in class was the concept of “borrowing.” “This leaves us with a simple fact about what happens when languages come together: they mix. There is no recorded case in human history in which languages were spoken side by side and did not spice one another with not only words, but grammar” (McWhorter, 15). I believe this is a very strong and clear remark in holding his opinion that it is unrealistic to believe that there was no Celtic influence in the language. Just as we have seen in our readings this semester, borrowing is a very common concept that takes part in language communication through out the world. In the articles of From English to Chinglish, we learned how English words have been adopted into the Chinese language and how this has caused changes in grammar when translating. In my own experience through my travels to Mexico, Costa Rica and Ecuador, I have witnessed how some English words have been borrowed into the Spanish language of those countries in their everyday language.

          The beginning of the book is interesting and humorous but I do find myself getting confused with the many examples he uses of different languages in comparison to English.  I don’t think there is any single passage that I have not understood quite clearly yet, except for the beginning as to what is the reason that some linguist refuse to accept that English was influenced in part by the Celts. This passage is the first assumption made on pages 11 through 17 of the book.