Do You Speak American?

by Robert MacNeil

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Conversations
148	4	41,301	(3.31)	11

Work details

Book details

Title	Do You Speak American?
Author	Robert MacNeil
Rating
Tags	linguistics, read, readin2007, 50 book challenge, english, language, dialects, nonfiction, verified
Collections	Your library, History and Humanities, Books I've Read
Your review	An easy read, but not a particularly enlightening one. I've taken just enough linguistics (in college) and read just enough pop linguistics that this book didn't have much new to say to me. Yeah, there are prescriptivists and descriptivists. Yeah, people in Brooklyn sound different than people in California. There were a few moments of interest, but nothing striking enough that I remember even a stray particular fact. When the authors delve into modern discussion of slang (especially teenage), they manage to sound like hopeless squares, despite their gormless, eager efforts to sound liberal-minded and in the know.
Other authors*	William Cran
Publication	Harvest Books (2005), Edition: Reprint, Paperback
Publication date	2005
ISBN	0156032880 / 9780156032889
LC classification 1	PE2808 .M26
Dewey 1	427/.973 22
Subjects	Americanisms English language › Dialects › United States English language › Social aspects › United States English language › Spoken English › United States English language › United States English language › United States. › Dialects English language › United States. › Social aspects English language › United States. › Spoken English English language › United States. › Variation English language › Variation › United States
Primary language eng	English
Secondary language	(blank)
Original language
Date acquired
Date started	2007-06-24
Date finished	2007-06-27
Summary 1	Do You Speak American? by Robert MacNeil (2005)
Comments
BCID	XXX-
Number of copies	1
Citation	MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, Wikipedia citation
Data source	amazon.com

* We recently added a more robust system for other authors, including separate standing for each author and a role (eg., Editor, Illustrator).This feature is currently available for newly-added books only, but it will be extended to all books soon.

Help