Chesapeake Bay, before 1650 -- Boston, 1650-1700 -- Charleston, 1700-1750 -- Philadelphia, 1750-1800 -- New Orleans, 1800-1850 -- New York, 1850-1900 -- Chicago, 1900-1950 -- Los Angeles, 1950-2000
Summary
"When did English become American? What distinctive qualities made it American? What role have America's democratizing impulses, and its vibrantly heterogeneous speakers, played in shaping our language and separating it from the mother tongue? Richard Bailey's Speaking American investigates the history and continuing evolution of our language from the sixteenth century to the present"--Provided by publisher
