Download or read book The United States of English written by Rosemarie Ostler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-08-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of how English became American -- and how it became Southern, Bostonian, Californian, African-American, Chicano, elite, working-class, urban, rural, and everything in between By the time of the Revolution, the English that Americans spoke was recognizably different from the British variety. Americans added dozens of new words to the language, either borrowed from Native Americans (raccoon, persimmon, caucus) or created from repurposed English (backwoods, cane brake, salt lick). Americans had their own pronunciations (bath rhymed with hat, not hot) and their own spelling (honor, not honour), not to mention a host of new expressions that grew out of the American landscape and culture (blaze a trail, back track, pull up stakes). Americans even invented their own slang, like stiff as a ringbolt to mean drunk. American English has continued to grow and change ever since. The United States of English tells the engrossing tale of how the American language evolved over four hundred years, explaining both how and why it changed and which parts of the "mother tongue" it preserved (I guess was heard in the British countryside long before it became a typical Americanism). Rosemarie Ostler approaches American English as part of the larger story of American history and culture, starting with what we know about the first colonists and their speech. Drawing on the latest research, she explores the roots of regional dialects, the differences between British and American language use, the sources of American slang, the development of African American English, current trends in political language, and much more. Plentiful examples of the American vernacular, past and present, bring the language to life and make for an engaging as well as enlightening read.
Download or read book Speaking American written by Richard W. Bailey and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2012-01-23 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Speaking American shows what the English language looked like from various points on the American continent at crucial points in its linguistic history.
Download or read book The American Language written by H. L. Mencken and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Replica of the 1921 'revised and enlarged' second edition"--Jacket
Download or read book Speaking American written by Richard W. Bailey and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-04 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When 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 movement, and a thirst for innovation, Americans have always been eager to invent new words, from earthy frontier expressions like "catawampously" (vigorously) and "bung-nipper" (pickpocket), to West African words introduced by slaves such as "goober" (peanut) and "gumbo" (okra), to urban slang such as "tagging" (spraying graffiti) and "crew" (gang). Throughout, Bailey focuses on how people speak and how speakers change the language. The book is filled with transcripts of arresting voices, precisely situated in time and space: two justices of the peace sitting in a pumpkin patch trying an Indian for theft; a crowd of Africans lounging on the waterfront in Philadelphia discussing the newly independent nation in their home languages; a Chicago gangster complaining that his pocket had been picked; Valley Girls chattering; Crips and Bloods negotiating their gang identities in LA; and more. Speaking American explores--and celebrates--the endless variety and remarkable inventiveness that have always been at the heart of American English.
Download or read book English in the Southern United States written by Stephen J. Nagle and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-01-09 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The English of the southern United States is possibly the most studied of any regional variety of any language because of its rich internal diversity, its distinctiveness among regional varieties in the United States, its significance as a marker of regional identity, and the general folkloric appeal of southern culture. However, most, if not all, books about Southern American English have been directed almost exclusively toward scholars already working in the field. This 2003 volume, written by a team of experts, many of them internationally known, provides a broad overview of the foundations of and research on language variation in the southern United States designed to invite inquiry and inquirers. It explores historical and cultural elements, iconic contemporary features, and changes in progress. Central themes, issues and topics of scholarly investigation and debate figure prominently throughout the volume. The extensive bibliography will facilitate continued research.
Download or read book The American Language written by Henry Louis Mencken and published by Franklin Classics Trade Press. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book The United States Congress written by Ross English and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-06 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The role of the Congress is essential to any study of American government and politics. It would be impossible to gain a complete understanding of the American system of government without an appreciation of the nature and workings of this essential body. This is an introductory text aimed at undergraduates studying American politics and American society. It looks at the workings of the United States Congress, and uses the Republican period of ascendancy, which lasted from 1994 until 2000, as an example of how the Congress works in practice. The book illustrates the basic principles of Congress using contemporary and recent examples, while also drawing attention to the changes that took place in the 1990s. The period of Republican control is absent from many of the standard texts and is of considerable academic interest for a number of reasons, not least the 1994 election, the budget deadlock in 1995 and the Clinton impeachment scandal of 1999. The book traces the origin and development of the United States Congress, before looking in depth at the role of representatives and senators, the committee system, parties in Congress, and the relationship between Congress and the President, the media and interest groups. This will be the first textbook on the market that enables students to incorporate these developments into their work and into their thinking about contemporary American politics and society"--Publisher's description.
Download or read book The Elementary Spelling Book written by Noah Webster and published by . This book was released on 1832 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The American Language written by Henry Louis Mencken and published by . This book was released on 1945 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The United States of English written by Rosemarie Ostler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The United States of English tells the story of American speech from its earliest beginnings to its current state. Topics covered include the following: the foundations of American English, beginning with the earliest word adoptions; the origins of regional dialects; how the vocabulary developed; an exploration of American slang and language creation outside the mainstream, including internet-related; typical American grammatical structures and how they differ from British English; how regional dialects spread across the country and their defining features; the origins and main features of African-American English, Chicano English, and American Indian English; social aspects of American English use, including controversies over grammar and usage, and issues of language and gender and language and identity; the current state of the language and where it might go from here; the place of American English in the world. Written with non-specialists in mind, the book provides a broad overview, yet with enough detail to guide interested researchers to more in-depth information. It presents the evolution of American English not as a dry collection of linguistic facts, but as an ever-changing story that's part of the country's larger cultural and political history. Numerous example quotations from historical sources bring earlier American English to life and show how it has changed over time. The book has an introduction, nine chapters, and a brief afterword, and totals about 90,000 words of text"--
Download or read book English with an Accent written by Rosina Lippi-Green and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its initial publication, English with an Accent has provoked debate and controversy within classrooms through its in-depth scrutiny of American attitudes towards language. Rosina Lippi-Green discusses the ways in which discrimination based on accent functions to support and perpetuate social structures and unequal power relations. This second edition has been reorganized and revised to include: new dedicated chapters on Latino English and Asian American English discussion questions, further reading, and suggested classroom exercises, updated examples from the classroom, the judicial system, the media, and corporate culture a discussion of the long-term implications of the Ebonics debate a brand-new companion website with a glossary of key terms and links to audio, video, and images relevant to the each chapter's content. English with an Accent is essential reading for students with interests in attitudes and discrimination towards language.
Download or read book The American Language written by H. L. Mencken and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 739 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The American Language written by Henry Louis Mencken and published by Alfred a Knopf Incorporated. This book was released on 2000 with total page 817 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A modified, one-volume edition of Mencken's classic analysis of American English
Download or read book The American Language written by H. L. Mencken and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 739 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The American Language A Preliminary Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States written by H. L. Mencken and published by Andesite Press. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book The American Language written by Henry Louis Mencken and published by Knopf Publishing Group. This book was released on 1945 with total page 798 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The American Language written by Henry L. Mencken and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
