Do You Speak American?

Do You Speak American? PDF Author: Robert Macneil
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
ISBN: 0307423573
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
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

Do You Speak American?

Do You Speak American? PDF Author: Robert Macneil
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
ISBN: 0307423573
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book Here

Book Description
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

Speaking American

Speaking American PDF Author: Josh Katz
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 9780358359937
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Did you know that your answers to just a handful of questions can predict the zip code of where you grew up? Speaking American offers a visual atlas of the American vernacular--who says what, and where they say it--revealing the history of our nation, our regions, and the language that divides and unites us.

American Accent Training

American Accent Training PDF Author: Ann Cook
Publisher: Barron's Educational Series, Incorporated
ISBN: 9780764173691
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
Directed to speakers of English as a second language, a multi-media guide to pronouncing American English uses a "pure-sound" approach to speaking to help imitate the fluid ways of American speech.

A History of American English

A History of American English PDF Author: J. L. Dillard
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317899598
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
This impressive volume provides a chronological, narrative account of the development of American English from its earliest origins to the present day.

More Speak English Like an American

More Speak English Like an American PDF Author: Amy Gillett
Publisher: Language Success Press
ISBN: 0972530096
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
More Speak English Like an American brings you another 300+ idioms and expressions you need to know. Maybe you have already read Speak English Like an American. But this is not a necessary requirement. You can start with this new book, if you like, and work back. This popular ESL book features a new story and new American English idioms and expressions. In More Speak English Like an American, you'll follow the story of an American business as its employees come up with new product ideas, travel to China, throw themselves into office romances, and have exciting adventures. This book contains dozens of exercises and includes hundreds of usage examples, including some from American newspapers. Complete with illustrations and an audio CD of all the dialogues. Most books teach classroom English. When it comes to everyday life, this can seem unreal. And make you seem unreal. Our emphasis is on helping you talk, sound, and think like a native speaker. We also help you pick up more native English from movies and TV, newspapers, books, and the Internet. More Speak English Like an American helps you recognize and understand idioms whenever you see or hear them.

Speak With a New York Accent

Speak With a New York Accent PDF Author: Ivan Borodin
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN: 9781478156963
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
Finally, the go-to handbook for pulling off a convincing New York Accent. Hollywood dialect coach Ivan Borodin invites you to benefit from twenty years of preparing actors for stage and screen. The New York born instructor outlines the major aspects of this famously aggressive accent, including: *Monotone delivery *Increased nasality *Favoring the upper lip *'Yuge' changes *Unraveling contractions After going through this program, you'll have the audience convinced you're a New Yorker mid-way through your first sentence. This course is innovatively supported by free-to-access YouTube videos. Study this book while a veteran dialect coach spoon feeds you the subtleties of the accent. Interested in mastering a New York accent? Then this course will take you there in a very different way. Benefit from the best of two decades of experience. Awaken the New Yorker in you with this straightforward publication from a dialectician with a profound love of accents. 'Speak with a New York Accent' takes the exotic art of performing with dialects and delivers easy-to-follow lessons. Break all barriers to learning the New York accent with this book, and at your next audition the casting directors will be scraping their jaws off the floor. This program is also extremely helpful for comedians and voice-over artists. Ivan Borodin has taught dialects and accent reduction since 1993 at Los Angeles City College and Los Angeles Valley College Community Services, and several other schools. He has worked as a dialect coach on several films, including 'The Truth about Angels'.

Learning to Speak American

Learning to Speak American PDF Author: Colette Dartford
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1499861907
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Can a house renovation in the gorgeous Napa Valley let two bereaved parents learn to love again? A moving and engaging debut novel . . . shortens the dark nights' Santa Montefiore. An emotional and uplifting story of starting again, perfect for fans of Hilary Boyd and The Tea Planter's Wife. Having suffered in silence since the tragic death of their young daughter, Lola and Duncan Drummond's last chance to rediscover their love for one another lies in an anniversary holiday to the gorgeous Napa Valley. Unable to talk about what happened, Duncan reaches out to his wife the only way he knows how - he buys her a derelict house, the restoration of which might just restore their relationship. As Lola works on the house she begins to realise the liberating power of letting go. But just as she begins to open up, Duncan's life begins to fall apart. After all the heartbreak, can Lola and Duncan learn to love again? 'A heartrending story, well-told, about coping with unimaginable loss. Dartford evokes strong, sympathetic characters while writing fluently and from the heart. I raced through it.' Hilary Boyd, author of Thursdays in the Park 'A beautiful read, lyrically written, poignant and emotional' - Nicola Cornick, internationally bestselling author of House of Shadows 'Does everything a good book should do; it made me smile, it made me cry, it taught me lessons about life and love I didn't know before' - Claire Dyer, author of The Moment

Amerika-jin No Yōni Eigo O Hanasō

Amerika-jin No Yōni Eigo O Hanasō PDF Author: Amy Gillett
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780972530026
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description


Babel No More

Babel No More PDF Author: Michael Erard
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451628277
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
A “fascinating” (The Economist) dive into the world of linguistics that is “part travelogue, part science lesson, part intellectual investigation…an entertaining, informative survey of some of the most fascinating polyglots of our time” (The New York Times Book Review). In Babel No More, Michael Erard, “a monolingual with benefits,” sets out on a quest to meet language superlearners and make sense of their mental powers. On the way he uncovers the secrets of historical figures like the nineteenth-century Italian cardinal Joseph Mezzofanti, who was said to speak seventy-two languages, as well as those of living language-superlearners such as Alexander Arguelles, a modern-day polyglot who knows dozens of languages and shows Erard the tricks of the trade to give him a dark glimpse into the life of obsessive language acquisition. With his ambitious examination of what language is, where it lives in the brain, and the cultural implications of polyglots’ pursuits, Erard explores the upper limits of our ability to learn and use languages and illuminates the intellectual potential in everyone. How do some people escape the curse of Babel—and what might the gods have demanded of them in return?

Oration by Frederick Douglass. Delivered on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the Freedmen's Monument in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C., April 14th, 1876, with an Appendix

Oration by Frederick Douglass. Delivered on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the Freedmen's Monument in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C., April 14th, 1876, with an Appendix PDF Author: Frederick Douglass
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3385512875
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.