You say potato
Subtitle: a book about accents
By: Ben Crystal and David Crystal
Contributors: Crystal, David, 1941- author
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2014
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 247
ISBN-13: 9781447249696; 9781447276661
Subjects: English language; Accents and accentuation; Pronunciation; History; Englisch; Mundart; Sprachentwicklung; Anglais (langue); Dialectes; Histoire; Prononciation
Description: Some people say scohn, while others say schown. He says bath, while she says bahth. You say potayto. I say potahto And- -wait a second, no one says potahto. No one's ever said potahto. Have they? From reconstructing Shakespeare's accent to the rise and fall of Received Pronunciation, actor Ben Crystal and his linguist father David travel the world in search of the stories of spoken English. Everyone has an accent, though many of us think we don't. We all have our likes and dislikes about the way other people speak, and everyone has something to say about 'correct' pronunciation. But how did all these accents come about, and why do people feel so strongly about them? Are regional accents dying out as English becomes a global language? And most importantly of all: what went wrong in Birmingham? Witty, authoritative and jam-packed full of fascinating facts, You Say Potato is a celebration of the myriad ways in which the English language is spoken - and how our accents, in so many ways, speak louder than words.
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: pt. ONE ACCENT PASSIONS; title: Accent Buddies; title: What Went Wrong in Birmingham?; title: The Rough and the Smooth; title: Why Do the Bad Guys Talk Posh?; title: pt. TWO ACCENTS PRESENT; title: Mapping Accents; title: Accent Detectives; title: Casting for Accents; title: The BBC and the `Posh' RP; title: Can you tell; title: in England?; title: A Scottish Player; title: Can you tell; title: in the Celtic fringe?; title: Scones, Biscuits, and Star Wars; title: Can you tell; title: abroad?; title: pt. THREE ACCENTS PAST; title: Where It All Began; title: The Shakespeare Sound; title: The Shibboleth of Staunton; title: pt. FOUR ACCENTS FUTURE; title: What Went Wrong in Betelgeuse?; title: Accents Living; title: Accents Dying; title: Ben's Ep-ee-log; title: David's Ep-i-log.