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Fascinating and enlightening. Some interesting ideas and perspectives. Linguistics is crazy, yall.

An introduction to African American Vernacular English. Interesting to hear the comparisons with languages in other cultures.

So interesting! And he's such a great narrator. I love his podcasts and any other shows he ends up on.
Audiobook is around 4 hrs.

#podcasts

This is my third McWhorter and not my last. McWhorter, who is Black, looks at Black speech patterns and makes a case that it is a dialect of American English that is used in a similar way to how Scots use their dialect - often in informal situations with people who speak it as well. It is not “unintelligent” but instead follows its own regular usages of words and sentence structure. He also discusses why people “sound Black.” Very interesting! ⬇️

Linguist McWhorter explores how Black (American) English is a dialect rather than slang or a series of mistakes and how similar the presence of Black English alongside Standard English is to many places in the world. I found this interesting and eye-opening. I‘m glad I read it.

An insightful exploration of Black English (AAVE) from linguist John McWhorter, presenting the arguments for Black English as a distinct form of English with it's own grammar, accent, and diction. This is something I knew a bit about and was passionate about as a big language / English nerd, and this book presented so much research, information, and history of Black English I was completely unaware of. Highly recommend.

Overall very good. Not as much new info as I was hoping, but after 30ish hours of listening to McWhorter's podcast (Lexicon Valley) which has touched on Black English multiple times, I guess that shouldn't be surprising. Very conversational style and explicitly aimed at people without prior experience with linguistics.

More roof reading. I gotta say, of all the specifics of Black English McWhorter goes over, I never noticed 'aks'.

Roof reading

Unintentionally topical, as I ordered this early last week (my local bookstore is doing curbside pickup!) I know McWhorter isn't undisputed from a cultural conversation perspective, but he's an excellent linguist. I've read two of his other books and listened to him podcasting since he took over Slate's Lexicon Valley three years ago (weird showtunes and all) so looking forward to this one.

Fascinating and enlightening. Some interesting ideas and perspectives. Linguistics is crazy, yall.

Fantastic read #linguistics #language

An outstanding read. Charmingly written and highly educational this book is surely one of the best I have read this year. A fantastic historic, linguistic and social examination of African American Venacular English. I learned so much and had a good time doing so. Also I would think it would be a great tool for educators and historians of American culture. Would recommend it to just about anyone.

Just a reminder, though I know I‘m preaching to the choir. I‘m having an argument with a “White Feminist” on Facebook because she‘s trying to make a conversation about code switching in the black community all about her white self. If your brand of feminism doesn‘t take time to listen to the viewpoints of POC, you‘re not helping. Never turn a conversation about people of color into a conversation about white lady problems.

After eying this book for a bit and then spending a good chunk of the day listening to John McWhorter on the Lexicon Valley podcast, I had to grab this study of Black American speech. Ah, the gift of e-books to the moody, whim-driven reader... Excited to dig in.

#BRAINFUEL

Eh. I feel that it was quite enlightening for me, but I'm heavily interested in linguistics. For a casual reader, I don't think it had enough of a hook. Pretty interesting, though, regardless.

#SeasonsReadings2016 Day 30 - Best Reads of December

Of the books I read this month, these three were the most engaging, the most thought provoking, and the most entertaining. They rank among my favorite books of 2016.

#bestreadsofdecember #mugsoflitsy #bookstack

Fish don't know they're wet. And Americans, in that sense, don't know that their typical native linguistic repertoire is narrow and dull compared to that of a great many of the world's people.

Whether I said anything about it out loud would depend on my temperament, but as they used to say, they can't put you in jail for what you're thinking.

. . . And ungrammatical means that if you say such a thing, you are breaking the rules of the dialect.

Americans have trouble comprehending that ANY vernacular way of speaking is legitimate language.

Received for free in exchange for an honest review. I'm super interested in linguistics, so I'm pretty excited to get started.

#Recommendsday

The author, an African American linguist, presents a compelling argument: That the spoken language of many black Americans is not error-filled, but should be seen as a dialect separate from what he calls Standard English. The thesis is that, just as Standard English has grown and changed over time, due to various influences, so has Black English. They are both rich & complex languages, deserving of study and celebration.

I just started this, and I've already written so much marginalia! A fascinating look at linguistic racism in America

#booksfromSteinbeck @Liberty