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Article: Mother tongue.(The Stories of English)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- October 11, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Stories of English, by David Crystal (Overlook, 584 pp., $35)
YOU are awfully lucky to be reading this page. I'm not referring to my review, for heaven's sake--I'm referring to the language. We are awfully lucky to have English, the richest, most useful, most delightful language on earth.
Now, it does not become a native speaker to say this--we should leave it to others. Just as President Bush, in my opinion, should leave it to others to declare America "the greatest nation on earth" (that's the president in his recent convention speech).
Fortunately, people all over the world celebrate English and America alike. (Some of them do it ...