Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC. This book has a pretty narrow audience. I happen to be in it. This book is much more of a history than it is anything else, although there are plenty of deep dives into linguistic nerdiness. I learned so much. I have so much more to learn. I am going to do more digging into the Simplified Spelling Board. I had no idea it was even a thing and I am a person who lives on the corner of language and history. If you live in that neighborhood, this book is for you. My only problem was the summing up at the end. I do not need that in my non-fiction. I read the book. Let me remember. Ms. Murphy is not alone. This is a trend. I simply do not care for it. Anyway, to sum up (see what I did there), read this book.

THE PRODIGAL TONGUE by Lynne Murphy is subtitled: "The Love-Hate Relationship between American and British English." And Murphy, born and raised in New York State, but now a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex, is awesome/brilliant at describing differences and analyzing the impact of time, environment, and social class on language. She is very good at finding amusingly relevant quotes, too: "There is no such thing as American English. There is English. And there are mistakes."

Murphy provides a series of extensive notes and references as well as some fun quizzes about word origins. Debrief, for example, came from the Royal Air Force in WWII while ear muffs are a mid-19th century American invention. Have fun with THE PRODIGAL TONGUE – writers for The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe certainly did - and you will be surprised at all you learn! Starred review from Library Journal.

Links in Live post:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/apr/10/english-language-british-american-book https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-prodigal-tongue-review-more-trouble-in-the-colonies-1523571821
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2018/04/07/trousers-and-pants-stripping-down-british-and-american-english/hKNIYSOC5HCdqPORztFnpK/story.html