Did you know that your answers to just a handful of questions can predict the zip code of where you grew up? In 2013 Josh Katz accumulated and visually mapped over 350,000 unique survey responses to questions about word choice and pronunciation throughout America. His dialect quiz quickly became the most viewed webpage in the history of the New York Times. InSpeaking AmericanKatz 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 our language."

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.

Investigates the history and continuing evolution of American English, from the 16th century to the present, to celebrate the endless variety and remarkable inventiveness that have always been at the heart of our language. By the author of Images of English: A Cultural History of the Language.

When Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, language learning became a touchstone in the emerging culture wars. Nowhere was this more apparent than in Los Angeles, where elected officials from both political parties had supported the legislation, and where the most disruptive protests over it occurred. The city, with its diverse population of Latinos and Asian Americans, is the ideal locus for Zevi Gutfreund’s study of how language instruction informed the social construction of American citizenship. Combining the history of language instruction, school desegregation, and civil rights activism as it unfolded in Japanese American and Mexican American communities in L.A., this timely book clarifies the critical and evolving role of language instruction in twentieth-century American politics. Speaking American reveals how, for generations, language instruction offered a forum for Angelino educators to articulate their responses to policies that racialized access to citizenship—from the “national origins” immigration quotas of the Progressive Era through Congress’s removal of race from these quotas in 1965. Meanwhile, immigrant communities designed language experiments to counter efforts to limit their liberties. Gutfreund’s book is the first to place the experiences of Mexican Americans and Japanese Americans side by side as they navigated debates over Americanization programs, intercultural education, school desegregation, and bilingual education. In the process, the book shows, these language experiments helped Angelino immigrants introduce competing concepts of citizenship that were tied to their actions and deeds rather than to the English language itself. Complicating the usual top-down approach to the history of racial politics in education, Speaking American recognizes the ways in which immigrant and ethnic activists, as well as white progressives and conservatives, have been deeply invested in controlling public and private aspects of language instruction in Los Angeles. The book brings compelling analytic depth and breadth to its examination of the social and political landscape in a city still at the epicenter of American immigration politics.

Argues that the Democratic party has lost its voice on the issues important to the middle class, and analyzes the failures of the Mondale and Dukakis presidential campaigns

This first study provides illuminating insights in to America's preeminent Yankee Radical and his concepts.

This book traces American engagement in the English-speaking Caribbean from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, and is the first to examine the policies of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump in this context. Focusing on The Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana as case studies, the book describes the growth of the English-speaking Caribbean and highlights American interest and foreign relations in this region from European discovery up through the post-9/11 era to today (1492-2019). The book demonstrates the unique relationship between America and the former British colonies, shedding light on U.S. foreign policy with the Caribbean in general and at a bilateral level with the four selected countries, providing a useful survey for students, scholars, diplomats, policymakers, governments officials, and anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of U.S. – Caribbean relations.

Speaking Naturally is for intermediate and high intermediate ESL/EFL students who are interested in using English in social interaction. Each unit contains:" Presentation of language functions (thanking, agreeing, disagreeing, inviting, etc.) in both formal and informal situations" Informative readings on the cultural rules students need to know in real-life situations" Exercises and role plays for pairs and small groups, to encourage interaction" Short recorded dialogues, which expose students to a range of American accents and levels of formality.Speaking Naturally can be used as a classroom text, as a supplementary text, and for self-study.

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

Book and CD. Dialect is not simply a verbal costume worn by an actor -- it is fundamental to speech and therefore acting, in that it helps to locate the historical, biographical and social identity of a character. Meryl Streep described dialect as "a way of finding the essential truth of the character". Speaking American is a simple and accurate guide to speaking in a General American dialect. This is the preferred dialect for performance in a wide range of American stage, film and television works, and it can operate as a foundation dialect for other regional or ethnic American dialects. The book covers pronunciation, intonation, American lingo, phonetics, tongue placement, lip formation and practical exercises, as well as words and phrases useful for improvisation work. The accompanying CD complements the various lessons and exercises.

In Speaking Qur'an: An American Scripture, Timur R. Yuskaev examines how Muslim Americans have been participating in their country's cultural, social, religious, and political life. Essential to this process, he shows, is how the Qur'an has become an evermore deeply American text that speaks to central issues in the lives of American Muslims through the spoken-word interpretations of Muslim preachers, scholars,and activists. Yuskaev illustrates this process with four major case studies that highlight dialogues between American Muslim public intellectuals and their audiences. First, through an examination of the work of Fazlur Rahman, he addresses the question of how the premodern Qur'an is translated across time into modern, American settings. Next the author contemplates the application of contemporary concepts of gender to renditions of the Qur'an alongside Amina Wadud's American Muslim discourses on justice.Then he demonstrates how the Qur'an becomes a text of redemption in W. D. Mohammed's oral interpretation of the Qur'an as speaking directly to the African American experience. Finally he shows how, before and after 9/11, Hamza Yusuf invoked the Qur'an as a guide to the political life of American Muslims. Set within the rapidly transforming contexts of the last half century, and central to the volume, are the issues of cultural translation and embodiment of sacred texts that Yuskaev explores by focusing on the Qur'an as a spoken scripture. The process of the Qur'an becoming an American sacred text, he argues, is ongoing. It comes to life when the Qur'an is spoken and embodied by its American faithful.

"Public Speaking in American English: A Guide for Non-Native Speakers," 1/e Nancy Grass Hemmert, "Santa Monica"" College" Through discussion of culture, language, and diversity, "Public Speaking in American English: A Guide for Non-Native Speakers" offers real world advice about overcoming the most pressing, relevant, and stress-provoking speaking issues non-native students face. Designed specifically for non-native English speakers, this book follows the traditional public speaking textbook format, but also offers students a sense of the larger community of non-native English speakers, such as LEPand ESL students, who face the same struggles, challenges, and concerns. Every chapter is infused with discussion about the relevant cultural and linguistic issues students are likely to face as well as concrete suggestions on how to address, compensate for, and/or overcome these difficulties. Specific exercises and activities (both within the chapter and at the end of each chapter) allow students to work on their own or in a class to improve their skills set. Additionally, the writing style, though easy to read, challenges the non-native English speaker without frustrating the reader. Features: "Considering Culture" boxes in every chapter investigate the similarities and differences in public speaking within various U.S. co-cultures and other cultures around the world, helpingstudents find connections that go beyond language and aid in their understanding of public speaking. "Considering Language" marginal notes explore the connections between public speaking topics and other languages, enabling students to weave together their understanding of their native language with public speaking. "What Others Say" feature offers anecdotes, stories, quotations and quips from non-native public speaking students, expressing the distinctive challenges and experiences that affect the non-native English speaker and enabling students to see that they are a part of a unique community of speakers. "Hint" features within every chapter reveal quick tips for planning, preparing, putting together, and practicing speeches. "Try This" boxes in each chapter provide quick exercises and activities to reinforce the new content and allow students to put what they have learned into practice immediately.

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.

In late medieval Catholicism, mourners employed an array of practices to maintain connection with the deceased—most crucially, the belief in purgatory, a middle place between heaven and hell where souls could be helped by the actions of the living. In the early sixteenth century, the Reformation abolished purgatory, as its leaders did not want attention to the dead diminishing people's devotion to God. But while the Reformation was supposed to end communication between the living and dead, it turns out the result was in fact more complicated than historians have realized. In the three centuries after the Reformation, Protestants imagined continuing relationships with the dead, and the desire for these relations came to form an important—and since neglected—aspect of Protestant belief and practice. In Speaking with the Dead in Early America, historian Erik R. Seeman undertakes a 300-year history of Protestant communication with the dead. Seeman chronicles the story of Protestants' relationships with the deceased from Elizabethan England to puritan New England and then on through the American Enlightenment into the middle of the nineteenth century with the explosion of interest in Spiritualism. He brings together a wide range of sources to uncover the beliefs and practices of both ordinary people, especially women, and religious leaders. This prodigious research reveals how sermons, elegies, and epitaphs portrayed the dead as speaking or being spoken to, how ghost stories and Gothic fiction depicted a permeable boundary between this world and the next, and how parlor songs and funeral hymns encouraged singers to imagine communication with the dead. Speaking with the Dead in Early America thus boldly reinterprets Protestantism as a religion in which the dead played a central role.

This timely handbook will outline the exact methods that will put you on the path to mastering the art of speaking American English - just what you have always dreamed of.

America has spoken, and now it is time our hearts collectively listen. From the riots in Baltimore, and majority of America's living below the poverty line, it is time we concern ourselves with America's future. This book is a collection of citizens across America that is tired of the problems politicians in Washington is keep ignoring. It is time we stand up against police brutality, domestic violence and deplorable living conditions of those working starvation wages in America.

An introduction to American colloquialisms through the use of explanatory dialogue or narrative.