Excellent Video on American English

Here's a great old pbs video available for viewing on line through August 1.
American Tongues

Synopsis from the PBS site: Rich in humor and regional color, this sometimes hilarious film uses the prism of language to reveal our attitudes about the way other people speak. From Boston Brahmins to Black Louisiana teenagers, from Texas cowboys to New York professionals, American Tongues elicits funny, perceptive, sometimes shocking, and always telling comments on American English in all its diversity. (60 minutes)

Back when I was in college, probably around 1990, my mom taped the full length program from PBS. I took that very poor quality recording (sorry, Mom!) with me to Poland where I was an English teacher and shared it with my fellow teachers. It was a big hit. If you've got some time, check it out. You're sure to learn something new and interesting.

Just what the world needs - another blog.

Verb Appeal.

Because I love words. I love language. And I have so many thoughts about words n'at, so why not blog.
I have been interested in words as long as I can remember. And these days I even get paid for my ability to find the right word for things.

My interest is not limited to English words, although the rich flavors of the various North American varieties, Irish and UK varieties as well as Indian English could probably occupy my mind for a good long time.

Once upon a time you might have called me a slavophile. With four years of college study of Russian under my belt and five years living in Poland, I definitely lean towards words ending in SKI and clusters of multiple consonants, generally including Zs and/or some "foreign" diacritics.

These days I am taking in Spanish slowly, as I live in an area where I get to read quite a bit on signs and when I'm feeling adventurous, I can turn on probably a dozen Spanish language channels on cable. But I don't spend too much time on Spanish, though I would like to. Any time I have for new language acquisition goes into learning Kannada, my husband's mother tongue.

So yes, I love language. Vocabulary, phrases, cultural concepts, regional accents, etymologies, non-standard grammar, and sometimes standard grammar. And that's just the beginning.

Welcome to my blog.

Word of the Day - April 27

Today I learned a new word: graupel. Apparently this means "soft hail." I learned this thanks to the morning newscast.
weather.about.com has this page: http://weather.about.com/od/g/g/graupel.htm