I watched the PBS program "Do You Speak American?" this evening. One of my favorite PBS shows is the Story of English, a miniseries that was broadcast in the mid-1980s. While tonight's show wasn't quite as good as that, it still had some interesting parts.
On of the things I found the most interesting was a discussion of a short vowel shift that's happening in the Great Lakes area. (More about that here - scroll down until you see the box with "busses" and "bosses".) You can hear it here.
If you're interested in English and its dialects, the show's worth a watch but the Web site has most of the same information and more. The articles and essays are especially good as are some of the special features - check out "Track that Word" if you're interested in slang.
Posted by marybeth at January 5, 2005 11:48 PM Words