American Tongues

Linguistic Attitudes in the U.S.

Southerners talk too slowly. New Yorkers are rude. New Englanders don't say much at all. Anybody who lives in the U.S. knows the cliches about how people in the various parts of the country handle the English language. American Tongues is the first documentary to explore the impact of these linguistic attitudes in a fresh and exciting manner.

For over ten years American Tongues has entertained and educated audiences from the high school level on up. It is in use in thousands of colleges, universities, corporate training offices, military installations, TESL classes, and other institutions. American Tongues has been an enormously useful teaching tool for helping students and workers hear examples of regional speech and attitudes and relate them to their own lives.

Some of the points included in American Tongues:

-Profiles of a number of linguistic communities, including the remarkable relic area of Tangier Island, Virginia

-A survey of American linguistic prejudice (regional, social, racial)

-The role of the mass media in fostering stereotypes

-Opinions and examples of Black English (Ebonics)

-How accents in one locale can differ by social class

Principal Advisors: Frederic G. Cassidy,Chief Editor; Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE); Walt Wolfram,University of North Carolina at Raleigh; Raven McDavid,University of Chicago.

American Tongues was supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and SWAMP, the Southwestern Alternative Media Project. A production of The Center for New American Media, New York.