Do You Speak American? - Paperback

by Robert MacNeil (Author), William Cran (Author)

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?

Front Jacket

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

Back Jacket

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 about American English catapulted Robert MacNeil and William Cran, authors (with Robert McCrum) of the language classic The Story of English, on a cross-country journey in search of answers. A fascinating follow-up to The Story of English, Do You Speak American? is the tale of the surprising discoveries they made along the way.
Did you know:
*Southern speech is now the largest accent group in the United States.
*Valley Girl and Surfer Dude dialects are becoming more influential across the world.
*Black Americans and white Americans speak less like each other today than they did two and three generations ago.
*Spanglish, Chicano English, and Chicano Spanish are three distinct and thriving American dialects.
*Women adopt new pronunciations and speech styles more quickly than men.
*People react to synthetic computerized voices in the same way they react to real human voices.
*A milkshake is called a frappe in Massachusetts.
Robert MacNeil and William Cran are the coauthors of The Story of English (with Robert McCrum). The coanchor of PBS's The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour until his retirement in 1995, Robert MacNeil is also the author of two volumes of memoir and three novels, including, most recently, Breaking News. He lives in New York City.