Geneva Smitherman ended up in speech therapy in her freshman year at Wayne State University in the 1950s, when she failed a test to screen incoming teaching students for possible speech problems. The ...

Black Americans have long contributed to the ways in which the English language is used. A new research project aims to compile the first Oxford Dictionary of African American English. Black people ...

How someone talks is complicated. It depends on where they’re from, where they spent their formative years, if they moved around, and whether they’re consciously trying to alter how people perceive ...

The story of American English is how the nation’s different groups have made the language their own — but it’s also about the way it connects Americans. The latest book by the Mexican American author ...

"The People’s Tongue: Americans and the English Language" is available Feb. 14. (Courtesy Restless Books) In his new anthology, “The People’s Tongue: Americans and the English Language,” editor Ilan ...

This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today. Listen 47:34 American English has ...

“Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ’Round” is a crowd favorite for the Northwest African American Museum’s African American Choir Ensemble. Based on the spiritual “Don’t You Let Nobody Turn You ’Round,” ...

Hosted by the English Language Institute at the University of Delaware, English and American Culture is a short-term program combining high-quality ESL instruction, cultural course content and fun. It ...