McWhorter John. Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English

Gotham Books, 2008. — 256 p. — ISBN: 978-1-59240-395-0.This is a curious book, being on an academic subject, but not written in an academic style. Enjoyment lies in the lively and vigorous presentation of its ideas.
The main topic is the influence that there is likely to have been on Old English (and hence on the language we now use) from the indigenous Celtic tribes and the Vikings. This is interesting, because of my interest in the Dark Ages. That was a period that determined the fundamental shape of the future English people and state, yet the developments have largely to be inferred, in the absence of customary historical sources. The information on this topic could be summed up in a page or two, but its exposition is expanded through arguing against the more traditional kind of scholarship, which is reluctant to approach the topic in the way this author does.
A related topic consists of arguing against misguided attempts to correct other people's English; on the grounds that so much of what we take as correct now, was once seen as bad grammar. This argument that we have to let language develop in its own way, and not be judgmental about the outcomes, is something I'm ambivalent about, as I like to see language used as a precision instrument, not a blunt one. Do we lose something when testament becomes accepted as a replacement for testimony? More generally, do you sometimes feel, when reading a piece of American prose, that you can tell roughly what is meant, but there are words that are similar to ones which would be much more meaningful?
So, this book is entertaining for what it says and how it says it, though rather meagre fare, and certainly only for those with a particular interest in language study. (Goodreads Review)