Spreading the Word: Language and Dialect in America

by John McWhorter

The idea that there is one "best" English is so intuitively plausible and so relentlessly inculcated in us that it is only natural to attempt to uphold this "Standard" among our students. Our error is in thinking that anything that deviates from this Standard is wrong. In Spreading the Word, linguist John McWhorter proves that these nonstandard dialects are not bastardizations of Standard English, but alternate variations upon the basic plan of English, of which the Standard is but one. With a general focus on classroom applications, McWhorter makes accessible to teachers, teacher educators, and administrators basic language principles that are commonly accepted by linguists, but rarely disseminated to a general audience. Using data from several different languages, McWhorter shows that the speech differences we hear in America are qualitatively equivalent to those heard in other parts of the world where the same differences are not considered "bad language." He links his thesis not only to "prescriptive grammar," but to more immediate issues facing classroom teachers, such as Black English and code switching between Spanish and English. A complete chapter is dedicated to showing how mixture between languages is a worldwide and natural phenomenon, rather than a language-ravaging "accident." Spreading the Word closes with a brief overview of eight of the most spoken languages in this country that are least like English. In doing so, McWhorter helps us come to view the language palette that exists in our classrooms as an asset not a problem. Most of all, he reinforces our best instincts about accepting and celebrating our students language, while giving us solid grounds for doing so.

Genres: Language, Linguistics, Nonfiction

83 pages, Paperback

First published January 14, 2000

About the author

John Hamilton McWhorter (Professor McWhorter uses neither his title nor his middle initial as an author) is an American academic and linguist who is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he teaches linguistics, American studies, philosophy, and music history. He is the author of a number of books on language and on race relations. His research specializes on how creole languages form, and how language grammars change as the result of sociohistorical phenomena.

A popular writer, McWhorter has written for Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Politico, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, City Journal, The New Yorker, among others; he is also contributing editor at The Atlantic and hosts Slate's Lexicon Valley podcas

Reviews

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

McWhorter demonstrates through linguistic analysis that "black English" is not linguistically inferior to standard English, even though it is often perceived that way. He does similar analyses with other languages that might be perceived as inferior. He also explains the process that languages go through as they evolve over time.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super fast read and it's aimed at prospective language teachers, so it's also super practical. Reading this really confirmed for me that I prefer learning history via the lens of language development-- how languages grow, change, mash together, pull apart. Very fun.

[Tim Fargus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great quick read introducing a lot of concepts that McWhorter expands on greatly in The Power of Babel.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is by one of my favorite authors! It is a relatively easy, very readable book about linguistics, and includes lots of information. It seems oriented toward the classroom teacher of high school or college.