Word On The Street: Debunking The Myth Of A Pure Standard EnglishThough there is a contingent of linguists who fight the fact, our language is always changing -- not only through slang, but sound, syntax, and words' meanings as well. Debunking the myth of "pure" standard English, tackling controversial positions, and eschewing politically correct arguments, linguist John McWhorter considers speech patterns and regional accents to demonstrate just how the changes do occur. Wielding reason and humor, McWhorter ultimately explains why we must embrace these changes, ultimately revealing our American English in all its variety, expressiveness, and power. |
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... sense that our personal perceptions of it are correct. We cannot help but be a bit skeptical that a linguist has any grounds for judging casual speech, whatever their facility with foreign languages or their expertise in neurological or ...
... sense that our personal perceptions of it are correct. We cannot help but be a bit skeptical that a linguist has any grounds for judging casual speech, whatever their facility with foreign languages or their expertise in neurological or ...
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... sense than mere colorful words and idioms. Sounds are always wearing off, other sounds are always evolving into ... sense. For example, here is a sample of the Lord's Prayer in Old English, as it would have been spoken in about A.D. 1000 ...
... sense than mere colorful words and idioms. Sounds are always wearing off, other sounds are always evolving into ... sense. For example, here is a sample of the Lord's Prayer in Old English, as it would have been spoken in about A.D. 1000 ...
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... sense “should” be pronounced “offtin,” as it is written, and see the frequent pronunciation, “offin,” as “slumming” a bit. However, across the world, languages are constantly shedding sounds in order to ease the pronunciation of words ...
... sense “should” be pronounced “offtin,” as it is written, and see the frequent pronunciation, “offin,” as “slumming” a bit. However, across the world, languages are constantly shedding sounds in order to ease the pronunciation of words ...
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... sense of “language” as a disembodied blueprint to be followed or flouted. English changed much more from a.d. 1000 to 1400, before the invention of printing, than it has since. Even so, however, even writing can only slow down the ...
... sense of “language” as a disembodied blueprint to be followed or flouted. English changed much more from a.d. 1000 to 1400, before the invention of printing, than it has since. Even so, however, even writing can only slow down the ...
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... sense is the clump of lava decaying—if one piece is beginning to drip or split into strands, we can be sure that a few inches away, other pieces are joining together. At any given point, we do not see the present configuration of the ...
... sense is the clump of lava decaying—if one piece is beginning to drip or split into strands, we can be sure that a few inches away, other pieces are joining together. At any given point, we do not see the present configuration of the ...
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Word On The Street: Debunking The Myth Of A Pure Standard English John Mcwhorter Limited preview - 2000 |
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actually African Americans AfricanAmerican children AfricanAmerican students Afrocentric ain’t American English audience basic bidialectal bilingual Black and standard black children Black English black speech black students bridging advocates bridging approach classroom codeswitching complex Creole languages Creolist culture developed dialect of English dialect readers endings English dialects English speakers example expression fact French genderneutral German grammar Gullah habitual Haitian immersion issue Jamaican patois John Rickford language change language mixture Latin Level linguists means Media Lengua modern nonstandard dialects noun Oakland controversy Old English patterns person pidgin play prepositions problem pronoun Quechua reading Rickford Romance languages rules Saramaccan seen sense sentence structures separate language Shakespeare Shirley simply singular slang slaves sound system Spanish speak speech variety Sranan standard dialect standard English sure Swiss German teachers teaching tense things translation verb vowel walk West African languages words writing