Splendiferous Speech
How Early Americans Pioneered Their Own Brand of English
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Splendiferous Speech
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Narrated by:
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Erin Bennett
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By:
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Rosemarie Ostler
About this listen
What does it mean to talk like an American? According to John Russell Bartlett's 1848 Dictionary of Americanisms, it means indulging in outlandish slang - splendiferous, scrumptious, higgeldy piggedly - and free-and-easy word creation - demoralize, lengthy, gerrymander. American English is more than just vocabulary, though. It's a picturesque way of talking that includes expressions like go the whole hog, and the wild boasts of frontiersman Davy Crockett, who claimed to be "half horse, half alligator, and a touch of the airthquake."
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. For anyone who wonders how we got from the English of King James to the slang of the Internet, it's an exhilarating ride.
©2018 Rosemarie Ostler (P)2018 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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David Crockett: The Lion of the West
- By: Michael Wallis
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 192
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 166
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 168
His name was David Crockett. He never signed his name any other way, but popular culture transformed his memory into "Davy Crockett", and Hollywood gave him a raccoon hat he hardly ever wore. Best-selling historian Michael Wallis casts a fresh look at the frontiersman, storyteller, and politician behind these legendary stories.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Author is very bias.
- By Michael on 05-31-12
By: Michael Wallis
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The Story of America
- Essays on Origins
- By: Jill Lepore
- Narrated by: Colleen Devine
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 52
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
In The Story of America, Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore investigates American origin stories - from John Smith's account of the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to Barack Obama's 2009 inaugural address - to show how American democracy is bound up with the history of print. Over the centuries, Americans have read and written their way into a political culture of ink and type. Part civics primer, part cultural history, The Story of America excavates the origins of everything from the paper ballot and the Constitution to the I.O.U. and the dictionary.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Fun Read on Historical Subjects
- By Jim on 08-31-13
By: Jill Lepore
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The Story of English in 100 Words
- By: David Crystal
- Narrated by: David Crystal
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 272
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 233
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 233
In this unique new history of the world's most ubiquitous language, linguistics expert David Crystal draws on words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences, and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the first definitively English word was written down in the fifth century ("roe", in case you are wondering). Featuring Latinate and Celtic words, weasel words and nonce-words, ancient words ("loaf") to cutting edge ("twittersphere") and spanning the indispensable words that shape our tongue ("and", "what") to the more fanciful ("fopdoodle"), Crystal takes us along the winding byways of language.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Random but entertaining
- By Sean on 04-01-13
By: David Crystal
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Young Benjamin Franklin
- The Birth of Ingenuity
- By: Nick Bunker
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 17 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
From his early career as a printer and journalist to his scientific work and his role as a founder of a new republic, Benjamin Franklin has always seemed the inevitable embodiment of American ingenuity. But in his youth, he had to make his way through a harsh colonial world, where he fought many battles with his rivals, but also with his wayward emotions. Taking Franklin to the age of 41, when he made his first electrical discoveries, Bunker goes behind the legend to reveal the sources of his passion for knowledge.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good Book but LOTS of Names
- By Tim on 10-31-19
By: Nick Bunker
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Jacksonland
- President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab
- By: Steve Inskeep
- Narrated by: Steve Inskeep
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 305
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 262
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 261
Jacksonland is the thrilling narrative history of two men - President Andrew Jackson and Cherokee chief John Ross - who led their respective nations at a crossroads of American history. Five decades after the Revolutionary War, the United States approached a constitutional crisis. At its center stood two former military comrades locked in a struggle that tested the boundaries of our fledgling democracy. Jacksonland is their story.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic and Thoughtful
- By Elizabeth Westbrook on 05-05-16
By: Steve Inskeep
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Making History
- The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past
- By: Richard Cohen
- Narrated by: Richard Cohen
- Length: 26 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
There are many stories we can spin about previous ages, but which accounts get told? And by whom? Is there even such a thing as “objective” history? In this “witty, wise, and elegant” (The Spectator), book, Richard Cohen reveals how professional historians and other equally significant witnesses, such as the writers of the Bible, novelists, and political propagandists, influence what becomes the accepted record. Cohen argues, for example, that some historians are practitioners of “Bad History” and twist reality to glorify themselves or their country.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Missing 20 pages from book
- By Rick, Austin on 04-23-22
By: Richard Cohen
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The World That Made New Orleans
- From Spanish Silver to Congo Square
- By: Ned Sublette
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 237
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 214
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 213
Offering a new perspective on the unique cultural influences of New Orleans, this entertaining history captures the soul of the city and reveals its impact on the rest of the nation. Focused on New Orleans' first century of existence, a comprehensive, chronological narrative of the political, cultural, and musical development of Louisiana's early years is presented.
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2 out of 5 stars
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great book; terrible "performance"
- By WGNYC on 11-28-17
By: Ned Sublette
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The New Nation
- A History of US, Book 4
- By: Joy Hakim
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 69
Beginning with George Washington's inauguration and continuing into the nineteenth century, The New Nation tells the story of the remarkable challenges that the new country faced. Thomas Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory (bought from France at a mere four cents an acre!), Lewis and Clark's daring expedition through the wilderness, the War of 1812, and more.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful US History; book 4 particularly good
- By EmilyK on 08-10-14
By: Joy Hakim
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How the Scots Invented the Modern World
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 491
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 436
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 437
Who formed the first literate society? Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism? The Scots. As historian and author Arthur Herman reveals, in the 18th and 19th centuries Scotland made crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics - contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since. This book is not just about Scotland: it is an exciting account of the origins of the modern world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Eagerly Awaited Audiobook
- By Lulu on 09-01-16
By: Arthur Herman
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The Sun and the Moon
- Hoaxers, Showmen, and Lunar Man-Bats in 19th-Century New York
- By: Matthew Goodman
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 39
The Sun and the Moon tells the delightful and surprisingly true story of how a series of articles in the Sun newspaper in 1835 convinced the citizens of New York that the moon was inhabited. Purporting to reveal discoveries of a famous British astronomer, the series described such moon life as unicorns, beavers that walked upright, and four-foot-tall flying man-bats. It quickly became the most widely circulated newspaper story of the era.
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3 out of 5 stars
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some very good some very bad
- By peter on 10-30-10
By: Matthew Goodman
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West Like Lightning
- The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express
- By: Jim DeFelice
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
The thrilling narrative history of one of the most enduring icons of the American West, the Pony Express, from the number-one New York Times bestselling co-author of American Sniper - an exciting tale of daring young men pushing limits to the extremes across the vast, rugged, and unsettled American West.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Picture of Wild West Life and the Pony
- By Pierre C. on 08-07-18
By: Jim DeFelice
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Undaunted Courage
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 21 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,935
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,714
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,700
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River, across the forbidding Rockies, and - by way of the Snake and the Columbia rivers - down to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and his partner, Captain William Clark, endured incredible hardships and witnessed astounding sights. With great perseverance, they worked their way into an unexplored West. When they returned two years later, they had long since been given up for dead.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Narration kills a great book
- By Kindle Customer on 02-10-08
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The Island at the Center of the World
- The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrated by: Russell Shorto
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 541
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 472
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Story5 out of 5 stars 469
In a landmark work of history, Russell Shorto presents astonishing information on the founding of our nation and reveals in riveting detail the crucial role of the Dutch in making America what it is today.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Incomplete history, but fun. Performance is poor.
- By Matthew on 11-27-18
By: Russell Shorto
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The Gettysburg Gospel
- The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows
- By: Gabor Boritt
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 149
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 113
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Story4 out of 5 stars 115
The literature of the Gettysburg Address tends to fall into one of two extremes. At one end are those books that maintain that Lincoln wrote his speech hastily, even on a scrap of paper on the train en route from Washington to Gettysburg. In this version, Lincoln delivered his remarks to an uncomprehending public, which applauded politely, failing to appreciate his genius. Many of the books that argued this point of view are out of print today, but the myths and legends live on.
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5 out of 5 stars
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add this to your Lincoln bookshelf
- By D. Littman on 01-26-07
By: Gabor Boritt
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Libertarians on the Prairie
- Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books
- By: Christine Woodside
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4 out of 5 stars 73
Generations of children have fallen in love with the pioneer saga of the Ingalls family, of Pa and Ma, Laura and her sisters, and their loyal dog. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books have taught millions of Americans about frontier life, giving inspiration to many and in the process becoming icons of our national identity. Yet few realize that this best-selling series wandered far from the actual history of the Ingalls family and from what Laura herself understood to be central truths about pioneer life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very Interested!!
- By ME00625 on 01-16-17