Description
Book SynopsisWhen did English become American? What distinctive qualities made it American? What role have America''s democratizing impulses, and its vibrantly heterogeneous speakers, played in shaping our language and separating it from the mother tongue?A wide-ranging account of American English, Richard Bailey''s Speaking American investigates the history and continuing evolution of our language from the sixteenth century to the present. The book is organized in half-century segments around influential centers: Chesapeake Bay (1600-1650), Boston (1650-1700), Charleston (1700-1750), Philadelphia (1750-1800), New Orleans (1800-1850), New York (1850-1900), Chicago (1900-1950), Los Angeles (1950-2000), and Cyberspace (2000-present). Each of these places has added new words, new inflections, new ways of speaking to the elusive, boisterous, ever-changing linguistic experiment that is American English. Freed from British constraints of unity and propriety, swept up in rapid social change, restless move
Trade ReviewThe story of American English is one of eternal rises and falls in reputation, and Bailey, the author of several books on English, traces our assorted ways of speaking across the country, concentrating on a 50-year period, starting in Chesapeake Bay and ending in Los Angeles. * The New York Times Book Review *
Places fresh daggers in the heart of the idea that language can somehow be perfected and standardized and celebrates the ability of English to change, adapt, adopt, steal and transform. - Kirkus Reviews
Fascinating...Grounding this historical journey in specific cities allows Bailey to infuse his narrative of American English with local color. * Ben Zimmer, The Boston Globe *
Bailey's tour of the tongue includes enough colorful language-related anecdotes and enough cultural and historical meat to reward the patient general reader." * Chris Tucker, The Dallas Morning News *
Speaking American is a brilliant kaleidoscopic picture of American English, showing deftly and authoritatively that Americans have always invented and re-invented our language as we please (and in every American place, from sea to shining sea). * Erin McKean, Founder, Wordnik.com *
Beautifully researched and engagingly written, Speaking American breaks new ground in showing, city by city, the complex human forces that have given American English its individual character and vitality. It will become required reading for anyone interested in the history of English. * David Crystal, author of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language and The Stories of English *
Speaking American is a rich look at the mind-blowingly diverse forces that have twisted and tweaked English on these shores. * Mark Peters, Visual Thesaurus *
Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Chesapeake Bay, before 1650 ; 3. Boston, 1650-1700 ; 4. Charles Town, 1700-1750 ; 5. Philadelphia, 1750-1800 ; 6. New Orleans, 1800-1850 ; 7. New York, 1850-1900 ; 8. Chicago, 1900-1950 ; 9. Los Angeles, 1950-2000 ; 10. Cyberspace, 2000- ; References ; Index
