Since its original publication in 1997, English with an Accent has inspired generations of scholars to investigate linguistic discrimination, social categorization, social structures, and power. This new edition is an attempt to retain the spirit of the original while enriching and expanding it to reflect the greater understanding of linguistic discrimination that it has helped create.

This third edition has been substantially reworked to include:

• An updated concept of social categories, how they are constructed in interaction, and how they can be invoked and perceived through linguistic cues or language ideologies
• Refreshed accounts of the countless social and structural factors that go into linguistic discrimination
• Expanded attention to specific linguistic structures, language groups, and social domains that go beyond those provided in earlier editions
• New dedicated chapter on American Sign Language and its history of discrimination
• QR codes linking to external media, stories, and other forms of engagement beyond the text
• A revamped website with additional material

English with an Accent remains a book that forces us to acknowledge and understand the ways language is used as an excuse for discrimination. The book will help readers to better understand issues of cross-cultural communication, to develop strategies for successful interactions across social difference, to recognize patterns of language that reflect implicit bias, and to gain awareness of how mistaken beliefs about language create and nurture prejudice and discrimination.

About the Author

Rusty Barrett is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Kentucky. His research is in Mayan linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and sociolinguistics. He is author of From Drag Queens to Leathermen: Language, Gender, and Gay Male Subcultures, co-author of Other People's English: Code Meshing, Code Switching and African American Literacy, and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality.

Jennifer Cramer is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Kentucky. Her research is in perceptual dialectology, with a specific focus on dialect variation in Kentucky. She is the author of Contested Southernness: The Linguistic Production and Perception of Identities in the Borderlands, co-author of Linguistic Planets of Belief: Mapping Language Attitudes in the American South, and co-editor of Cityscapes and Perceptual Dialectology: Global Perspectives on Non-Linguists' Knowledge of the Dialect Landscape.

Kevin B. McGowan is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Kentucky and Director of the University of Kentucky Phonetics Lab. He is a phonetician, and his research primarily focuses on speech perception and the ways in which the creation and perception of social identities influence our ability to understand each other.

Reviews

The third edition of English with an Accent presents an extraordinary new resource created from a time-honored classic, taking the pieces of the original and elegantly intersecting them with 21st-century language practice. The original material is still there; however, it has been rewoven to include a broader semiotic realm, a deeper representation of language variation across multiple modalities, a richer set of theoretical and methodological approaches, and a new coherence rooted in the fact that language variation is simultaneously arbitrary and powerfully meaningful. As such, this edition sets a new standard for the presentation and discussion of linguistic discrimination.

Robin Queen, University of Michigan

With crisp prose and cogent arguments, the authors recreate the eye-opening impact of English with an Accent in light of recent movements for social justice, crafting activities, exercises, and discussion questions that directly help readers engage in questions of how language socialization works and how it affects our personal lives as well as our society's future.

Kirk Hazen, West Virginia University

Be prepared to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. This edition of English with an Accent hits home and will keep you engaged and engrossed in issues that society too often doesn't understand in any meaningful and life-altering way. Well, the road to enlightenment is clearly provided here.

Sonja Lanehart, University of Arizona

Since its first publication, English with An Accent has inspired conversations that grapple with and challenge the ways people use language to recognize, categorize, and rank social differences. This latest version builds on this important foundation while providing significant updates to the coverage of topics and theory. Written in an engaging, provocative style, this new edition by Barrett, Cramer and McGowan is comprehensive and accessible. It will leave readers with greater insight into and critical awareness of the subtle role language variation plays in the maintenance of power today and the marginalization and on-going subordination of particular social groups, in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Barbra A. Meek, University of Michigan

Book Information
ISBN 9781138041936
Author Rusty Barrett
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 680g