Review: Secret Life of Words: How English Became English by Hitchings

This Book Is About

My Thoughts On This Book

The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English is a pretty interesting book. The chapters aren’t arranged by time period so much as by manner of influence on English; invasions of the British isles (Gallic,Roman, Saxon, and Norman); politics fueled borrowings from French, Greek, Latin, Spanish, and Italian; commerce and travel driven word development; the struggle over English’s ‘purity’; imperialism’s influence on English; American history’s mark on the language; and where the future of the tongue lies. That’s just a rough summary.

I liked how the book was broken up into the history of how certain types of cultural and linguistic contact have shaped the English language. However, there’s overlap in many of these areas so I felt there was a lot of repetition in several of the chapters.

But then, I was in a bit of a hurry to finish the book in order to get to the rest of my towering stack of items I’ve got checked out from the public library. So, I wasn’t giving Secret Life of Words my full attention.

I have to say that I found the last chapter, ‘Shabash’, the most interesting. In this final section of the Secret Life of Words, Hitchings talks about how English is used in non-English speaking countries, those nations where another language is the primary one spoken but the people use English for their own purposes.

I find his speculations about how this globalization, as well as the internet, will affect and alter the language for the future:

Sitting on the London Underground, I am able to recognize that the group of young men opposite are Poles: I hear words and phrases that are familiar to me from my travels to Poland, and I am pretty confident that only Poles speak Polish. But when we hear someone speaking English we can draw no such conclusions. It is a language nobody owns. Instead of being a badge of nationality, the ability to speak English has become a sign of aspiration – of the desire to be educated, to succeed in business or as a public official, to study science or imbibe the intoxicating creations of Hollywood.

The book is a bit more academically minded, so if you just want a brief read with some quickly picked out words than The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English is not what you’re looking for. However, if you have an interest in how English became the omnivorous delight we speak today than you’ll definitely want to read this one.

I think the ‘Onslaught’ chapter sums up the nature and history of English the best when it quotes Drydan’s succinct statement, “I trade with the living and the dead, for the enrichment of our native language.”

Rating & Levels For This Book

I Give This Book 3 Vikings out of five	Violence Level 0 Burning Huts out of five	Romance Level 0 Hearts out of five
# of actual vikings in book: 0 What do these levels mean? »	Humor Level 0 Smiles out of five	Lust Level 0 Kisses out of five

Author and Publishing Information For This Book

Author & Book Details Title: The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English Author(s): Henry Hitchings ISBN#: 9780374254100 Genre(s): English language history Edition Reviewed: Hardback Illustrations: N/A Page Count: 448 Part of a Series: No

Publishing & Copyright Details Publisher(s): Farrar Straus Giroux Copyright: 2008 In Print:Yes Original Language: English Published in Other Languages: No Find a Local Book Store »

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One Response to “Review: Secret Life of Words: How English Became English by Hitchings”

1. Jessica says:

   August 26, 2010 at 8:54 am

   Very interesting. I hadn’t heard of this one yet. I’m a big fan of Bill Bryson’s books on the history of English and American English so I may check this one out too.