Speaking American shows what the English language looked like from various points on the American continent at crucial points in its linguistic history.

Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Chesapeake Bay, before 1650; 3. Boston, 1650-1700; 4. Charles Town, 1700-1750; 5. Philadelphia, 1750-1800; 6. New Orleans, 1800-1850; 7. New York, 1850-1900; 8. Chicago, 1900-1950; 9. Los Angeles, 1950-2000; 10. Cyberspace, 2000-; References; Index

Richard W. Bailey was the author of Images of English: A Cultural History of the Language, Nineteenth-Century English, and Rogue Scholar: The Sinister Life and Celebrated Death of Edward H. Rulloff. Bailey served in the course of his career as the President of the American Dialect Society and of the Dictionary Society of North America, and the associate editor for The Oxford Companion to the English Language. A long-time faculty member at the University of Michigan, he retired as Fred Newton Scott Collegiate Professor of English.