Showing results for "Words" in Colonial Period

From a preeminent legal scholar, a “fascinating” and “masterful” (Wall Street Journal) history of the American Constitution's formative decades When the US Constitution won popular approval in 1788, it was the culmination of thirty years of passionate argument over the nature of...

Splendiferous Speech explores the main sources of the American vernacular - the expanding western frontier, the bumptious world of politics, and the sensation-filled pages of popular 19th-century newspapers. It's a process that started with the earliest English colonists (first word adoption - the Algonquian raccoon) and is still going strong today. Author Rosemarie Ostler takes listeners along on the journey as Americans learn to declare linguistic independence and embrace their own brand of speech.