English with an Accent

Rusty Barrett is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Kentucky. His research is in Mayan linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and sociolinguistics. He is author of From Drag Queens to Leathermen: Language, Gender, and Gay Male Subcultures, co-author of Other People’s English: Code Meshing, Code Switching and African American Literacy, and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality.Jennifer Cramer is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Kentucky. Her research is in perceptual dialectology, with a specific focus on dialect variation in Kentucky. She is the author of Contested Southernness: The Linguistic Production and Perception of Identities in the Borderlands, co-author of Linguistic Planets of Belief: Mapping Language Attitudes in the American South, and co-editor of Cityscapes and Perceptual Dialectology: Global Perspectives on Non-Linguists’ Knowledge of the Dialect Landscape.Kevin B. McGowan is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Kentucky and Director of the University of Kentucky Phonetics Lab. He is a phonetician, and his research primarily focuses on speech perception and the ways in which the creation and perception of social identities influence our ability to understand each other.

The third edition of English with an Accent presents an extraordinary new resource created from a time-honored classic, taking the pieces of the original and elegantly intersecting them with 21st-century language practice. The original material is still there; however, it has been rewoven to include a broader semiotic realm, a deeper representation of language variation across multiple modalities, a richer set of theoretical and methodological approaches, and a new coherence rooted in the fact that language variation is simultaneously arbitrary and powerfully meaningful. As such, this edition sets a new standard for the presentation and discussion of linguistic discrimination.Robin Queen, University of MichiganWith crisp prose and cogent arguments, the authors recreate the eye-opening impact of English with an Accent in light of recent movements for social justice, crafting activities, exercises, and discussion questions that directly help readers engage in questions of how language socialization works and how it affects our personal lives as well as our society’s future. Kirk Hazen, West Virginia UniversityBe prepared to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. This edition of English with an Accent hits home and will keep you engaged and engrossed in issues that society too often doesn’t understand in any meaningful and life-altering way. Well, the road to enlightenment is clearly provided here.Sonja Lanehart, University of ArizonaSince its first publication, English with An Accent has inspired conversations that grapple with and challenge the ways people use language to recognize, categorize, and rank social differences. This latest version builds on this important foundation while providing significant updates to the coverage of topics and theory. Written in an engaging, provocative style, this new edition by Barrett, Cramer and McGowan is comprehensive and accessible. It will leave readers with greater insight into and critical awareness of the subtle role language variation plays in the maintenance of power today and the marginalization and on-going subordination of particular social groups, in the U.S. and elsewhere.Barbra A. Meek, University of Michigan

• ContentsList of FiguresList of TablesThe International Phonetic AlphabetPreface to the Third EditionChapter One: The pronunciation of differenceReproducing inequalityDiscourse structural racismLanguage ideologiesRed summerWhere we are headedDiscussion questionsChapter Two: Language, categorization, and social identitiesFifty shades of grueOnly skin deepSorting humanityCategories and cognitionIs that a sandwich?Some basic semioticsLanguage and racializationDiscussion questionsChapter Three: Things linguists know about languageFacts about languageLinguistic potentialVariety is the spice of life!Are you a robot?So-called Standard EnglishCommunicative effectiveness depends on variationDiscussion questionsChapter Four: Language subordinationReading a textbook: roles and responsibilitiesRejecting the gift: the individual’s role in the communicative processHesitance and uncertainty?Standard language ideologyConfronting ideologiesDiscussion questionsChapter Five: Place-based variation in the American contextThe social meaning of placeRegional varieties of American EnglishSpread the wordVowels on the moveRegional variation in morphology and syntaxOMG! There's, like, so much more variation!Structured variation: the hidden life of languageDiscussion questionsChapter Six: Language, racialization, and racismNo MSGRace, ethnicity, and linguistic variationEthnicity-indexing variation: words and soundsEthnicity-indexing variation: sentences and meaningsNo MSG, no lazy grammarLanguage, interaction, and ethnic inequalityLanguage, race, appropriation, and whitenessLanguage is loveDiscussion questionsChapter Seven: Language diversity in the United StatesEstados Unidos no tiene un idioma oficialLanguage abundanceStolen childhoodsLanguage ideologies and English public spaceEmbracing bilingualismDiscussion questionsChapter Eight: American Sign Language and deaf cultureHow people communicateWhat it means to be hearingDeaf cultureSign languages and American Sign LanguageMartha's Vineyard Sign LanguageOralism vs. manualismLanguage ideology and deaf cultureIdeologies within the deaf communityDiscussion questionsChapter Nine: Putting language on the mapHow we see the language around usPerceptual dialectologyLinguistic landscapesThe linguistic perception of the American SouthKountry Livin’What it means to sound SouthernPerceptions meet strategies of condescensionDiscussion questionsChapter Ten: A history of ‘r’ in the United StatesMeaningful, important, and arbitraryThe remarkable letter ‘r’Rhotics: variety, terminology, and symbolsAmerican [ɹ] is wei(r)dWhere did American [ɹ] come from?From non-rhotic to rhotic: American sound change in the first half of the 20th centuryNon-rhotic in ManhattanDiscussion questionsChapter Eleven: The communicative burden in educationThe medium of instructionInvisible ideologies go to schoolThe setting of goalsWhose language?Appropriacy argumentsLanguagelessnessEducation as cultural assimilationHow teachers talkHow graduate students talkWhat the science tells usDiscussion questionsChapter Twelve: Language use, media stereotypes, and fake newsStorytellers, Inc.Teaching children how to discriminateBuilding on stereotypesDisney’s worldviewInformation literacy: beyond cartoonsEcho chambers and filter bubblesBad is stronger than goodDiscussion questionsChapter Thirteen: Language in the workplaceUnwelcoming environmentsSorry not sorry"This is America, speak English!""Nobody can understand those people""You sound so insecure when you talk the way I do""You’re so much prettier when you’re not angry"White men talkingDiscussion questionsChapter Fourteen: Examining the American judicial system and housingLanguage(s) and the lawLost in translationLinguists as expertsAmerican housing problemsHeard but not seenI had you at "hello"A human failingDiscussion questionsEpilogue: Teach your children wellHonesty & equality & respect & linguistic diversityYou must be carefully taughtOur hope for you, dear readerBibliographyIndex