Do You Speak American?Is American English in decline? Are regional dialects dying out? Is there a difference between men and women in how they adapt to linguistic variations? These questions, and more, about our language catapulted Robert MacNeil and William Cran—the authors (with Robert McCrum) of the language classic The Story of English—across the country in search of the answers. Do You Speak American? is the tale of their discoveries, which provocatively show how the standard for American English—if a standard exists—is changing quickly and dramatically. On a journey that takes them from the Northeast, through Appalachia and the Deep South, and west to California, the authors observe everyday verbal interactions and in a host of interviews with native speakers glean the linguistic quirks and traditions characteristic of each area. While examining the histories and controversies surrounding both written and spoken American English, they address anxieties and assumptions that, when explored, are highly emotional, such as the growing influence of Spanish as a threat to American English and the special treatment of African-American vernacular English. And, challenging the purists who think grammatical standards are in serious deterioration and that media saturation of our culture is homogenizing our speech, they surprise us with unpredictable responses. With insight and wit, MacNeil and Cran bring us a compelling book that is at once a celebration and a potent study of our singular language. Each wave of immigration has brought new words to enrich the American language. Do you recognize the origin of 1. blunderbuss, sleigh, stoop, coleslaw, boss, waffle? Or 2. dumb, ouch, shyster, check, kaput, scram, bummer? Or 3. phooey, pastrami, glitch, kibbitz, schnozzle? Or 4. broccoli, espresso, pizza, pasta, macaroni, radio? Or 5. smithereens, lollapalooza, speakeasy, hooligan? Or 6. vamoose, chaps, stampede, mustang, ranch, corral? 1. Dutch 2. German 3. Yiddish 4. Italian 5. Irish 6. Spanish |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 9 | |
Dingbatters Versus HoiToiders | 31 |
Putting the R in American | 49 |
four This Aint Your Mamas South Anymore | 67 |
Reconquest or Assimilation? | 89 |
six Badmouthing Black English | 115 |
seven Language from a State of Change | 151 |
eight Teaching Computers to Speak American | 179 |
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Common terms and phrases
accent African American English American English asked Bailey Baldy become believes Black English black speech British Cajun California called Cenizo century Chicano English cities Cukor-Avila culture Dennis Baron dialect Dictionary Dingbatters El Cenizo ethnic example Geoffrey Nunberg German glish gonna grammar guage guys hear hip-hop Hispanic immigrants island John Baugh kids Labov language Latino linguistic live means Mexican Mexico Molly Ivins Nass North Northern Northern Cities Shift Nunberg percent Ph.D Philadelphia Preston pronounced pronunciations queens r"-less radio regional Robert MacNeil Scots-Irish Sheidlower Simon slang slave social sound South Southern Spanish Speak American speakers speech patterns spoke stereotypes surfers talk teachers television Texas there's things tion told United University usage Valley Girl voice vowel William Labov woman women words writing Yeah York young
Popular passages
Page 134 - ... Now, I do not know what white Americans would sound like if there had never been any black people in the United States, but they would not sound the way they sound. Jazz, for example, is a very specific sexual term, as in jazz me, baby, but white people purified it into the Jazz Age. Sock it to me, which means, roughly, the same thing, has been adopted by Nathaniel Hawthorne's descendants with no qualms or hesitations at all, along with let it all hang out and right on! Beat to his socks, which...
Page 205 - Language, be it remember'd, is not an abstract construction of the learn'd, or of dictionary-makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground. Its final decisions are made by the masses, people nearest the concrete, having most to do with actual land and sea.
Page 137 - A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled. A child cannot be taught by anyone whose demand, essentially, is that the child repudiate his experience, and all that gives him sustenance...
Page 138 - It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power. It is the most vivid and crucial key to identity: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity.
Page 133 - A language comes into existence by means of brutal necessity, and the rules of the language are dictated by what the language must convey. There was a moment, in time, and in this place, when my brother, or my mother, or my father, or my sister, had to convey to me, for example, the danger in which I was standing from the white man standing just behind me, and to convey this with a speed and in a language, that the white man could not possibly understand, and that, indeed, he cannot understand, until...
Page 5 - English is destined to be in the next and succeeding centuries more generally the language of the world than Latin was in the last or French is in the present age. The reason of this is obvious, because the increasing population in America, and their universal connection and correspondence with all nations will, aided by the influence of England in the world, whether great or small, force their language into general use...
Page 99 - I love the United States of America. I love my country's flag. I love my country's language. I promise: 1. That I will not dishonor my country's speech by leaving off the last syllables of words. 2. That I will say a good American "yes" and "no" in place of an Indian grunt "um-hum" and "nup-um" or a foreign "ya," or "yeh
Page 18 - The same is the case in England— I mean among the educated classes, of course." "Yes, that is true; but a nation's language is a very large matter. It is not simply a manner of speech obtaining among the educated handful; the manner obtaining among the vast uneducated multitude must be considered also. Your uneducated masses speak English, you will not deny that; our uneducated masses speak American...
Page 15 - His family moved to the United States at the beginning of World War II, and Simon went on to earn a Harvard Ph.D.
Page 18 - ... stiff French garden of Louis XIV, while the English is like an English park, which is laid out seemingly without any definite plan, and in which you are allowed to walk everywhere according to your own fancy without having to fear a stern keeper enforcing rigorous regulations. The English language would not have been what it is if the English had not been for centuries great respecters of the liberties of each individual and if everybody had not been free to strike out new paths for himself.