Videos

DO YOU SPEAK AMERICAN

Produced by WNET in 2005.

A sociological/linguistic travelogue exploring the old and changing patterns in American-speak.

DO YOU SPEAK AMERICAN is a celebration of Americans as seen - and heard - through the way American's speak. Here are just some of the topics they'll learn more about: Exposure to mass media is not homogenizing American language or making Americans all talk the same. Due to huge migration to the South and Southwest and the national appeal of Country Music, Southern speech is now the largest accent group in the U.S. Despite decades of progress in civil rights, and the rise of a large black middle class, inner city African- Americans talk less like white Americans than they did two and three generations ago. More separate language means more separate peoples.

This series is hosted by Robert MacNeil, formerly of the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour. MacNeil travels to three regions of America:

a. DO YOU SPEAK AMERICAN? DOWN SOUTH This program follows Robert MacNeil down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to Appalachia, Louisiana Cajun country, and the Tex-Mex border to examine Southern dialects and accents and the influences of French and Spanish on American English. Linguist Walt Wolfram, columnist Molly Ivins, pop country singer Cody James, and others talk about regional differences in vernacular, the steady displacement of Southern coastal dialect by inland dialect, the accents of JFK and LBJ, and the Texas border town of El Cenizo, where Spanish is the official language. Recordings of Eudora Welty and Appalachian storyteller Ray Hicks are included, as well as WPA recordings from around 1940. (57 minutes)

b. DO YOU SPEAK AMERICAN? OUT WEST In this program, Robert MacNeil heads to California to take part in meaningful dialogues on Spanglish, Chicano, Ebonics, and "Surfer Dude" before going to Seattle to consider the implications of voice- activation technology. Linguist Carmen Fought, Stanford University's Cliff Nass, screenwriters Amy Heckerling and Winnie Holtzman, and others speak their minds about Spanish in America, why teens create their own language, gay self-empowerment by redefining discriminatory terms, the oo-fronting sound shift, and whether technology will reinforce or weaken racial/regional stereotypes. The teaching of standard English without devaluing or denigrating cultural linguistic differences is addressed. Language at times is colloquially rich and some may find it offensive. (57 minutes)

c. DO YOU SPEAK AMERICAN? UP NORTH In this program, Robert MacNeil canvasses the North to learn firsthand about linguistic dialect zones, the tension between prescriptivism and descriptivism, the northern cities vowel shift, the roots of African-American English, minority dialects and 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, and Bill Labov, the dean of American linguists. Language at times is colloquially rich and some may find it offensive.(57 minutes)

Rights: We have public performance and educational rights for these videos.