Query to ADS

[AAllan at AOL.COM]

< A friend of mine is teaching a course for elem.-jr. hi English/Language
Arts teachers this Winter on "The Development of American
English."  Wolfram & Schilling-Estes is too long and technical for this
course.  Does anyone have a good recommendation for a course that meets
twice a week for 10 weeks (and will be taught largely by microwave?!).  >>

Well, you just might have the friend look at a brand new book that is
certainly not too long or technical, being aimed at a non-specialist audience:

_How We Talk: American Regional English Today_  by Allan Metcalf (Houghton
Mifflin, Nov. 2000). While it mainly covers current regional variation (in
both pronunciation and vocabulary), it also has a brief historical
introduction, and it also has a chapter on ethnic dialects, and even one on
the movies. It comes in both hardcover and paperback.

- A.M.