. wiki.keithl.com/McWhorter == John McWhorter books == . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McWhorter . b 1965, PhD Stanford 1993 . taught linguistics at Cornell 1993-1995 and UC Berkeley 1995-2003 . Manhattan Institute 2003- . Columbia University 2008- ------ === Pronoun Trouble . 2025 BvtLib 425.55 MCW . 216 pages === ==== The Story of Us in Seven Little Words ==== . I tried to read this book; if I was a language maven and had an "ear" for English as sound rather than printed words on a page, I would have learned far more from it. . The overall message is that spoken languages evolve continuously, new words replace old, old words are modified, pronunciation changes . over time, pronouns change, grammar changes, older and younger and second-language speakers use different pronouns, and what we talk about changes . The book does NOT explicitly list "seven little words", but the core personal pronouns of English are '''"I, you, he, she, it we, they"''' ... (him, her, them .p6 [[ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/agita | agita ]] a feeling of agitation or anxiety .p12 [[ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amn%27t | amn't ]] "am not "in Scotland and Ireland .p13 [[ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bowsy | bowsy ]] Obsolete spelling of boozy .p21 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language | Proto Indo-European (PIE) language ]] 4500-2500 BC .p27 Twilight Zone [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Characters_in_Search_of_an_Exit | Five Characters in Search of an Exit ]] .p27 me versus I: "I ''(subject pronoun)'' did it" or "me" ''(object pronoun)'' if single word used alone .p36 Latin as model for the(snob) standardization of English .p45 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_(linguistics) | linguistic agreement ]] a word changes form depending on the other words it relates to. .p48 Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian are mutually understandable dialects of same language . "language is a political definition, dialect is a linguistic definition" .p55 [[ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%BEe | Ye ]] is a misreading of "thorn" letter รพ . [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Rest_Ye_Merry%2C_Gentlemen | God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen ]] Ye=You, or Thee .p56 English [[ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inc | inc ]] meant "you two" .p57 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language | origin of language ]] hundreds of thousands to two million years ago .p57 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Kondo | Marie Kondo ]] Japanese Organizing Consultant .p60 "status blind" use of [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_English | Middle English ]] pronouns was a grievous insult . Shakespeare signified the social status of characters by their pronouns; Othello uses "thou" for underling Iago, Iago uses "you" for boss Othello. Quakers/Friends used "thou" for everyone in that sense. .p96 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_(grammatical_number) | dual pronouns ]], two, between one and many ... and about here I ran out of energy and attention for this book. ------ === Talking Back, Talking Black . 2017 BvtLib 427.973 MCW . 190 pages === ==== Truths About America's Lingua Franca ==== .'''p11 Introduction''' .p45 Standard English i dipthong, rice "rahees", Black English rahs, [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monophthongization | monophthongization ]] .'''p25 It's Complicated''' .'''p57 What Do You Mean "Sounds Black"?''' .p61 dropping of the verb ''be'', example "She my sister." .p67 meal eel to ih-uhl, car to cawr .p69 breath to ^BREF^ .p69 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching | code switching ]] formal to intimate .p70 "black voice" mostly modified vowels, five little frills .p79 People comfortable with each other talk alike, certainly after generations. We're not there yet. .p82 the basic sound of speech differs in particular but subtle ways .p83 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_fry_register | vocal fry ]] . a slightly creaky tone that people frequently use . KHL I'll take your word for that, with my addled hearing I don't notice .'''p90 But They Can't Talk That Way at a Job Interview!''' .p94 [[ https://aschmann.net/AmEng/ | North American English Dialects ]] .p101 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diglossia | diglossia, ]] casual and formal speech differ .p108 Informal white speech is 'approachable, real, sexy" Informal black speech sometimes classified as dim .p109 Modern English isn't bad because Vikings massacred Old English to create it .p112 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiezdeutsch | Kiezdeutsch ]] spoken by youth in German multilingual immigrant neighborhoods, similar to Black English in US .p112 similar urban phenomena in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands .p113 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili | Swahili ]] and [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fula_language | Fula ]] African city dialects .p114 fish started out as fiks, mash started as mask, others said maks .p115 Chaucer often used aks for ask .p119 note: minstrel CD set ''Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry'' 2005 .'''p119 Speaking Black or Speaking Minstrel?''' .p120 [[ https://abagond.wordpress.com/2019/10/24/minstrelese/ | minstrelese ]], pre-1950 theatrical parody of black speech .p121 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzzy_the_Crow | Buzzy the Crow ]] minstrelese "black voice" cartoons from 1950 .p121 black voice caricature emerged from Civil War era [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minstrel_show | minstrel shows ]] .p122 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Philip_Krapp | George Philip Krapp ]] The English Language in America 1925 . artificial lingo with little relation to Southern black speech .p127 1970s Black slang ( Jive turkey, Right on!, boogie now antique, Black English has evolved .p128 Minnesotans (and 1800's blacks) "tight pronunciation" of ''oh'' sound, no brief oo falloff at end. .p129 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Johnson_(singer) | George Johnson ]] [[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVYHSlEssYY | The Whistling Coon ]] .p129 [[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbpxnovzuz4 | The Merry Mailman ]] no hint of black voice .p129 [[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0pSfsCL2Qk | Bert Williams ]] and [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Walker_(vaudeville) | George Walker ]] .p132 otherwise historically accurate films about the early 1800 omit "ample" facial hair .p133 !McWhorter's 1901 Atlanta-born grandfather sounded [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indian | West Indian ]] to younger blacks, with residual "ay" and "oh" sounds from the 1800s, raised by children of slaves .p134 minstrelese used "am" in place of "is", nobody actually talks like this. .p134 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_McKay | Claude McKay ]] 1928 novel [[ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Home-to-Harlem | Home to Harlem ]] .p136 ... McKay's minstrelese dialog "a window into the past" (inevitable conclusion ?? ) .p137 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois | W. E. B. DuBois ]] wrote that after reading it, he wanted a shower .p138 "come" as a marker of pique, doesn't mean "approach" .p139 || Old English for: || ''being'' just normally || ''being'' in a godly sense: forever || || I || am || be || || you || art || bist || || he/she/it || is || bith || || we/you all/ they || sind || bee-ith || .'''p148 Through a Lens Darkly?''' .p164 Black men use ''nigga'' to mean "buddy", usage more than century old .p167 Black English is complicated, not simply unravelled Standard English .p167 Britain has dozens of distinct regional dialects. Black English is America's only centuries-old English dialect strikingly unlike Standard English ------ === What Language Is . 2012 BvtLib 400 MCW . 228 pages === ==== and what it isn't and what it could be ==== This book is more about phonetics and pronunciation than about expression of ideas and meaning. With my poor hearing, I cannot "hear" what McWhorter writes about. For me, it feels like a silent movie for blind people. Many phonetic accent marks, a video with sound might help a full-hearing person understand what the phonetic marks mean. .'''p001 Introduction''' .p003 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lederer_(writer) | Richard Lederer ]] 1989 [[ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Crazy_English/w9XsNfsqxG8C | Crazy English ]] . tip of iceberg of nonsensicality in English .p004 six thousand languages, two hundred written languages, some spoken by less than 2000 people .p007 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan| Khoi-San ]] "click" languages of southern Africa have the biggest consonant inventories on Earth .p009 "A language is a fecund, redolent buzzing mess of a thing, in every facet, glint, and corner, even in single words." .'''p015 Chapter 1 . Languages are Ingrown''' .'''p061 Chapter 2 . Language is Dissheveled''' .'''p093 Chapter 3 . Language is Intricate''' .'''p134 Chapter 4 . Language is Oral''' .'''p167 Chapter 5 . Language is Mixed''' .'''p199 Epilogue . This View of Language''' .'''p207 Notes on Sources .'''p215 Acknowledgements