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 impact of dialect on grapholect, 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; Jesse Sheidlower, American editor of the august OED; and New York magazine's John Simon are featured.

Robert MacNeil Looks at Local Dialects (3:58) -- Dialect Areas of North America (2:56) -- Dynamics That Change the Language (4:30) -- Prescriptivism and Descriptivism (3:09) -- Threats to Written English (4:13) -- Search for Standard American English (4:13) -- American Attitudes Towards Dialects (2:58) -- Pittsburghese: Importance of Place (2:41) -- Midland American Dialect (3:04) -- American Newspapers and Language (2:40) -- Spoken American English (2:38) -- History of Black English (5:39) -- Controversy Over Black English (5:55) -- Hip-Hop Street Talk and Music (4:04) -- Introduction (1:13) -- beginning of english (0:14)