Milestones in the History of English in America

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by Allen Walker Read,

Edited by Richard W. Bailey

Duke University Press

Due/Published May 2002, 450 pages, cloth

ISBN 082236526X

An Issue of PADS (Publication of the American Dialect Society)

A collection of essays by one of the premier historians of American English, Milestones in the History of English in America offers an introduction to Allen Walker Read's work and the ways in which archival materials can illuminate linguistic history. This volume is divided into four sections: the emergence of American English as a distinct form and the attitudes of both Britons and Americans toward its development; the history of the most distinctive and widespread American coinage, "O.K."; euphemism and obscenity; and an autobiographical section that provides a fascinating portrait of a remarkable American scholar.