You Talkin' To Me?
The Unruly History of New York English

Ain’t nuttin’ wrong wit’ tawkin’ like dis.......more

This was a cool book; despite being titled as a history of the New York accent, it was an undercover history of the city itself. In talking about the accent, White talked about the demographics and the social culture of the city. This book was a quick read, lots of fun. Recommended.......more

This is more a history of New York's people and names, which obviously goes hand-in-hand with New York English. I do wish, however, that it had been more of a progressive journey through how New Yorkers spoke throughout the centuries. Still, some very interesting tidbits. Especially the differences......more

I really enjoyed this book despite the fact that the author is not a native New Yorker. She is, however, a long-time resident with a good ear for the New York dialect. There's a lot in the beginning of the book on pronunciation which, at times, drags, but stick with it, it does maintain your interes......more

This book certainly started out as a 5 star title, and at a couple other points almost redeemed itself; however it suffers from serious mission creep as a linguistic retrospective. More often than not, the book serves as a general cultural history of modern New York, with language as a loose unifyin......more