Splendiferous Speech: How Early Americans Pioneered Their Own Brand of English Audiobook (Free)

What does it mean to chat like an American? Regarding to John Russell Bartlett’s 1848 Dictionary of Americanisms, this means indulging in outlandish slang-splendiferous, scrumptious, higgeldy piggedly-and free-and-easy term creation-demoralize, extended, gerrymander. American English is more than simply vocabulary, though. It’s a picturesque way of talking that includes expressions like proceed the complete hog, as well as the outrageous offers of frontiersman Davy Crockett, who stated to become ‘half horse, half alligator, and a touch of the airthquake.’ Splendiferous Speech explores the primary sources of the American vernacular-the expanding traditional western frontier, the bumptious globe of politics, as well as the sensation-filled webpages of popular nineteenth-century newspapers. It’s a process that started with the initial English colonists (initial phrase adoption-the Algonquian raccoon) and is still going strong today. Writer Rosemarie Ostler will take listeners along over the journey as Americans learn to declare linguistic independence and embrace their own make of speech. For anybody who wonders how exactly we got from your English of Ruler James towards the slang of the Internet, it’s an exhilarating ride.