Do you speak American?
Subtitle: Episode 1
By: a MacNeil/Lehrer & Paladin InVision Production with Thirteen/WNET New York in association with KLRU Austin, Texas ; producers, William Cran, Christopher Buchanan ; director, William Cran ; writers, William Cran & Robert MacNeil
Contributors: Cassidy, Orlagh; Palmer, Allan; Frost, Joe; Foss, Paul; Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm); MacNeil/Lehrer Productions; Paladin InVision, Ltd; WNET (Television station : New York, N.Y.); KLRU (Television station : Austin, Tex.)
Series: SOC 540 (NU course); TED 665 (NU course); TED 666 (NU course)
Publisher: Films for the Humanities & Sciences
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Princeton, NJ
Language: eng
Format: [videorecording] /
Number of pages: 57
Subjects: English language; Spoken English; Dialects; Pronunciation; Documentary films
Other titles: Up north; Do you speak American? (Television program)
Description: Robert MacNeil canvasses the North to learn firsthand about linguistic dialect zones, the tension between prescriptivism and descriptivism, the impact on dialect, the northern cities vowel shift, the roots of African-American English, minority linguistic profiling, biases against nonstandard speech, and the general perception of the U.S. Midland dialect as "normal American."  Hip-hop street talk, IM slang, Pittsburghese, and Gullah and Geechee are sampled. Features Bill Labov, the dean of American linguists; Jesse Sheidlower, American editor of the august OED; and 'New York' magazine's John Simon. Some language may be offensive.
Notes: Cameraman, Allan Palmer ; editor, Joe Frost ; composer, Paul Foss.

Featuring Robert MacNeil ; narrator, Orlagh Cassidy.

DVD.

System requirements: DVD-ROM drive required to access Web links included with the program.

Optional English subtitles.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Pronunciation in New England and NYC; title: Prescriptivism vs. descriptivism; title: Rosa can't speak English; title: What is standard English?; title: Folk perceptions of dialects; title: Written English; title: Language change?; title: African-American English in Detroit; title: Dialect in schooling; title: Hip-hop.