How We Talk

How We Talk

Author: Allan A. Metcalf

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9780618043620

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In short, delightful essays, a professor of English explains the key features that make American speech so expressive and distinct. With chapters on ethnic dialects and dialects in the movies, the author reveals the resplendence of one of our nation's greatest natural resources--its endless and varied talk.


Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English

Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English

Author: Michael B. Montgomery

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2021-06-22

Total Pages: 3218

ISBN-13: 1469662558

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The Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English is a revised and expanded edition of the Weatherford Award–winning Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English, published in 2005 and known in Appalachian studies circles as the most comprehensive reference work dedicated to Appalachian vernacular and linguistic practice. Editors Michael B. Montgomery and Jennifer K. N. Heinmiller document the variety of English used in parts of eight states, ranging from West Virginia to Georgia—an expansion of the first edition's geography, which was limited primarily to North Carolina and Tennessee—and include over 10,000 entries drawn from over 2,200 sources. The entries include approximately 35,000 citations to provide the reader with historical context, meaning, and usage. Around 1,600 of those examples are from letters written by Civil War soldiers and their family members, and another 4,000 are taken from regional oral history recordings. Decades in the making, the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English surpasses the original by thousands of entries. There is no work of this magnitude available that so completely illustrates the rich language of the Smoky Mountains and Southern Appalachia.


Do You Speak American?

Do You Speak American?

Author: Robert Macneil

Publisher: Nan A. Talese

Published: 2007-12-18

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0307423573

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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


The Cambridge Companion to English Dictionaries

The Cambridge Companion to English Dictionaries

Author: Sarah Ogilvie

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-09-24

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 1108568459

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How did a single genre of text have the power to standardise the English language across time and region, rival the Bible in notions of authority, and challenge our understanding of objectivity, prescription, and description? Since the first monolingual dictionary appeared in 1604, the genre has sparked evolution, innovation, devotion, plagiarism, and controversy. This comprehensive volume presents an overview of essential issues pertaining to dictionary style and content and a fresh narrative of the development of English dictionaries throughout the centuries. Essays on the regional and global nature of English lexicography (dictionary making) explore its power in standardising varieties of English and defining nations seeking independence from the British Empire: from Canada to the Caribbean. Leading scholars and lexicographers historically contextualise an array of dictionaries and pose urgent theoretical and methodological questions relating to their role as tools of standardisation, prestige, power, education, literacy, and national identity.


The Dictionary Wars

The Dictionary Wars

Author: Peter Martin

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-09-08

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 0691210179

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Peter Martin recounts the patriotic fervor in the early American republic to produce a definitive national dictionary that would rival Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary of the English Language. But what began as a cultural war of independence from Britain devolved into a battle among lexicographers, authors, scholars, and publishers, all vying for dictionary supremacy and shattering forever the dream of a unified American language.


Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English

Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English

Author: Michael Montgomery

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 710

ISBN-13: 9781572332225

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Often considered merely a repository of archaic or even Elizabethan English, the language of southern Appalachia represents a distinctive American dialect that is both conservative and innovative. This dictionary marks the first comprehensive, historical record of the traditional speech of this region. Focusing on the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee and western North Carolina, it features more than six thousand names, usages, meanings, and folk expressions that are found in the region, exemplified by more than fifteen thousand documented quotations.


Dictionary of American Regional English: Introduction and A-C

Dictionary of American Regional English: Introduction and A-C

Author: Frederic G. Cassidy

Publisher: Belknap Press

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 1074

ISBN-13:

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This series capture the language spoken on America's main streets and country roads, words and phrases passed along within homes and communities, from east to west, north to south, childhood to old age. Built upon an unprecedented survey of spoken English across America and bolstered by extensive historical research, this series preserves the language with all its idioms and peculiarities.


Dictionary of Jamaican English

Dictionary of Jamaican English

Author: Frederic G. Cassidy

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 578

ISBN-13: 9789766401276

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The method and plan of this dictionary of Jamaican English are basically the same as those of the Oxford English Dictionary, but oral sources have been extensively tapped in addition to detailed coverage of literature published in or about Jamaica since 1655. It contains information about the Caribbean and its dialects, and about Creole languages and general linguistic processes. Entries give the pronounciation, part-of-speach and usage of labels, spelling variants, etymologies and dated citations, as well as definitions. Systematic indexing indicates the extent to which the lexis is shared with other Caribbean countries.


A Comprehensive Manchu-English Dictionary

A Comprehensive Manchu-English Dictionary

Author: Jerry Norman

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-10-26

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 1684170699

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Jerry Norman’s Comprehensive Manchu–English Dictionary, a substantial revision and enlargement of his Concise Manchu–English Lexicon of 1978, now long out of print, is poised to become the standard English-language resource on the Manchu language. As the dynastic language of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Manchu was used in official documents and was also the vehicle for an enormous translation literature, mostly from the Chinese. The newDictionary, based exclusively on Qing sources, retains all of the information from the earlier Lexicon, but also includes hundreds of additional entries cited from original Manchu texts, enhanced cross-references, and an entirely new introduction on Manchu pronunciation and script. All content from the earlier publication has also been verified. This final book from the preeminent Manchu linguist in the English-speaking world is a reference work that not only updates Norman’s earlier scholarship but also summarizes his decades of study of the Manchu language. The Dictionary, which represents a significant scholarly contribution to the field of Inner Asian studies and to all students and scholars of Manchu and other Tungusic and related languages around the world, will become a major tool for archival research on Chinese late imperial period history and government.


McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Idoms and Phrasal Verbs

McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Idoms and Phrasal Verbs

Author: Richard A. Spears

Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional

Published: 2006-02-03

Total Pages: 1100

ISBN-13: 0071486852

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Learn the language of Nebraska . . .and 49 other states With more entries than any other reference of its kind,McGraw-Hill’s Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs shows you how American English is spoken today. You will find commonly used phrasal verbs, idiomatic expressions, proverbial expressions, and clichés. The dictionary contains more than 24,000 entries, each defined and followed by one or two example sentences. It also includes a Phrase-Finder Index with more than 60,000 entries.