Do You Speak American?
Do Midwesterners speak without an accent? Are e-mail and messaging ruining American English? Are mass media homogenizing regional dialects? Why is Buffy the Vampire Slayer linguistically significant?
The short answers are no, probably not, no, and because of its great slang. For the long answers, check out the Web site for Do You Speak American? This three-part television series, featuring reporting by Robert MacNeil, debuted on public television a couple of years ago. Its Web site is a great resource for information about the history, dynamics, and future of American English.
WTIU viewers can see the first part of Do You Speak American? on Friday, August 11, at 9 p.m. The other parts will air on subsequent Fridays. You can also order the series on DVD or video, or you can buy the book.
Do you agree or disagree with what Do You Speak American? has to say? Do you think American English is in decline, or are we merely expressing ourselves in new, informal ways? What do you love or despise about our language? Submit a comment and let us know. Thx! TTFN
Comments
I do think that we are losing the language in this country. All the slang, text messaging and IMing have taken away from the language skills of our youth. I do not see this changing though. Our education system has accepted these terms and allows them to be used daily in our school system.
We're losing english in Canada just the same. Kind of depressing.
Our language is always evolving and with the use of coding and online activity the written Language also evolves, I know people in the UK that when writing use American english for the words that are spelt differently example color and colour. This does not mean a significant shift in UK english just a change of habit in constant typing of code. The spoken accents do not change and they do not even know they are doing it. This is evolution in written language form.