american English
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Posted by Orin Hargraves on January 30, 2012
Humans never outgrow a fascination with new playthings, but after a certain age it is unseemly and unrealistic to expect a steady stream of surprise gifts from doting parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. One consolation for this loss is new words: clever coinages come along all the time to supply our craving for novelty. A [...]
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Posted by Orin Hargraves on January 17, 2012
The run-up to a general election in the United States provides an opportunity for observers of English to see it stretched beyond ordinary limits. The winnowing process that will reduce the various Republican contenders in the race to one has begun and as we plod steadily toward the November election, the rhetoric heats up and [...]
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Posted by Stephen Bullon on January 03, 2012
One of the top words looked up over the Christmas period was the word grinch. Most people know the word from the Dr Seuss story How the Grinch Stole Christmas which was made into a cartoon for TV and later a live-action movie. As well as being the name of the fictional character, the word [...]
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Posted by Ben Trawick-Smith on November 14, 2011
Class English month continues with the pronunciation theme: guest blogger Ben Trawick-Smith, from Dialect Blog, takes a look at (non-)rhoticity in American English. Ben has worked as an actor, playwright, director, critic and dialect coach. His other passions include linguistics, urban development, philosophy and film. Ben lives with his wife in Seattle, Washington, in the [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on December 02, 2010
The other day, an American friend of mine told me he’d got a kitten, but then completely stumped me by saying she was a ‘brindle’. Was that a special breed, I wondered, or did she need medical treatment? It turns out, ‘brindle’ is what we in the UK would call tortoiseshell, and it got me [...]
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Posted by Kieran McGovern on November 01, 2010
Tomorrow, on 2nd November, the US are holding mid-term elections which will determine who – Republicans or Democrats – will control Congress for the next two years (for predictions, see here). As the 2000 Presidential Election spectacularly proved, the American electorate is divided into two camps. On one side are the Democrat-voting blue states, located [...]
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Posted by Joel Berg on August 12, 2010
We make a quick return to American English today, with a guest post by Joel Berg, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger and author of the book, All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?. __________ American society is willing to use the words “hungry” and “hunger” to denote a wide [...]
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Posted by Robert Lane Greene on July 29, 2010
Our American English month is shortly coming to its end. Perhaps this is a good point to stop and ask this question again: What is American English? This time the answer comes from Robert Lane Greene, journalist, blogger and author of a soon to be published (and now thoroughly copy-edited) book, You Are What You [...]
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Posted by Denise Du Vernay on July 27, 2010
We continue American English month with another guest post from Denise Du Vernay. Denise earned her master’s degree in English from Florida State University. She is co-author of The Simpsons in the Classroom: Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield. Her favorite pop is Diet Coke. __________ As a child growing up in [...]
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Posted by Denise Du Vernay on July 22, 2010
American English month continues with a guest post by Denise Du Vernay. Denise has been teaching composition, literature, humanities, speech, and courses on The Simpsons for over ten years. She is co-author of The Simpsons in the Classroom: Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield (www.simpsonology.com). Denise lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. __________ On [...]
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