Pop vs. Soda vs. Coke

Mar 7, 2012 by

Pop vs. Soda vs. Coke

Several previous posts discussed differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and even grammar across dialects of American English. Which terms do you use: Sneakers or tennis shoes? Hoagie or hero? Dust bunny or house moss? Do you say...

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American English from sea to shining sea, part 2

Sep 30, 2011 by

In the previous posting, I’ve mentioned a number of lexical peculiarities of various regional American English dialects. Let’s now consider some pronunciation peculiarities. Take, for example, the name Mary, the adjective...

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How did they say it?

Apr 14, 2011 by

It is not difficult to find websites that offer recordings of historical dialects or even of long-ago dead languages. But how do we know how anything was pronounced in ages past? Unfortunately, there are only three reliable ways to...

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Russian on screen

Apr 5, 2011 by

To stay on the subject of language in films, I want to share a pet-peeve of mine: inappropriate or inacurate rendition of foreign languages in films. Typically, what catches my eye (or ear?) is “bad” Russian in American...

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Thus spoke Shakespeare! Or did he?

Mar 25, 2011 by

It seems to be a tradition with Shakespearean theater everywhere — even in the U.S. — to think that the bard himself spoke “BBC English” (also known as Queen’s English, King’s English, Oxford...

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