Race and the Rise of Standard American / / Thomas Paul Bonfiglio.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Backlist Complete English Language 2000-2014 PART1
• VerfasserIn: Bonfiglio, Thomas Paul,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter Mouton, , [2010]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Edition: Reprint 2010
• Language: English
• Series: Language, Power and Social Process [LPSP] , 7
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (258 p.)

This study examines the effect of race-consciousness upon the pronunciation of American English and upon the ideology of standardization in the twentieth century. It shows how the discourses of prescriptivist pronunciation, the xenophobic reaction against immigration to the eastern metropolises - especially New York - and the closing of the western frontier together constructed an image of the American West and Midwest as the locus of proper speech and ethnicity. This study is of interest to scholars and students in linguistics, American studies, cultural studies, Jewish studies, and studies in race, class, and gender.

Table of Contents

I-X -- Introduction -- 1. The legitimation of accent -- 2. Pronunciations of race. 2.1. Saxons and swarthy Swedes: race and alterity in Benjamin Franklin -- 2. Pronunciations of race. 2.2. From Noah to Noah: Webster's ideology of American race and language -- 2. Pronunciations of race. 2.3. Class and race in the nineteenth century -- 2. Pronunciations of race. 2.4. Boston's last stand: the prescriptions of Henry James -- 2. Pronunciations of race. 2.5. Of tides and tongues: race, language, and immigration -- 2. Pronunciations of race. 2.6. Teutonic struggles: Mencken and Matthews -- 2. Pronunciations of race. 2.7. Vizetelly and the birth of network standard -- 3. Occident, orient, and alien -- Conclusion -- Afterword -- References -- Index