Do You Speak American? - Softcover

MacNeil, Robert; Cran, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156032880 ISBN 13: 9780156032889

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 2005

Synopsis

Is the growing influence of Spanish threatening to displace English in the United States? Are America's grammatical standards in serious decline? Has the media saturation of our culture homogenized our speech?

These and other questions catapulted Robert MacNeil and William Cran, coauthors of the language classic The Story of English, on a journey that took them around the country in search of answers. Do You Speak American?, the companion volume to a PBS special, is the tale of the surprising discoveries they made while interviewing a host of native speakers and observing everyday verbal interactions across the country. Examining the histories and controversies surrounding both written and spoken American English, MacNeil and Cran address highly emotional anxieties and assumptions about our language-and offer some unpredictable responses.

With insight and wit, MacNeil and Cran bring us a compelling follow-up to The Story of English that is at once a celebration and a potent study of our singular language.

About this title

Book Description

Published in hardcover by Nan A. Talese, 2004, 0-385-51198-1

From the Inside Flap

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0156032880
• ISBN 13: 9780156032889
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 228