You Say Potato: A Book About Accents cover art

You Say Potato: A Book About Accents

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You Say Potato: A Book About Accents

By: Ben Crystal, David Crystal
Narrated by: David Crystal, Ben Crystal, Jane Savage, Hilton McRae
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About this listen

An authoritative, entertaining book about our accents and what they say about us.

Some people say 'sconn' while others say 'schown'. He says 'bath' while she says 'bahth'. You say 'potayto'. I say 'potahto'. And - wait a second, no one says 'potahto'. No one's ever said 'potahto'. Have they?

From reconstructing Shakespeare's accent to the rise and fall of received pronunciation, actor Ben Crystal and his linguist father, David, travel the world in search of the stories of spoken English. Everyone has an accent, though many of us think we don't. We all have our likes and dislikes about the way other people speak, and everyone has something to say about 'correct' pronunciation.

But how did all these accents come about, and why do people feel so strongly about them? Are regional accents dying out as English becomes a global language? And most importantly of all: what went wrong in Birmingham? Witty, authoritative, and jam-packed full of fascinating facts, You Say Potato is a celebration of the myriad ways in which the English language is spoken - and how our accents, in so many ways, speak louder than words.

©2014 Ben Crystal and David Crystal (P)2015 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Linguistics Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences Witty

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All stars
Most relevant  
Loved this! David and Ben are fabulous. So much interesting research shared. Very useful for my profession

Fantastic

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Impressive comments about stereotypes and prejudicial judgements based on regional accents. Cute accent jokes and interesting performance by the father and the son. I would recommend this book to friends interested in English accent and those who learn linguistics.

Interesting audiobook about accent

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good audio book when hearing the examples made it more meaningful. Needs less about London.

informative and entertaining

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A well illustrated, wide ranging, at times humourous, account of accents and how they have changed across time and space.

Very interesting

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What did you like most about You Say Potato: A Book About Accents?

This book is brilliant! As an English philologist and non-native English speaker, I have enjoyed every single chapter. If you are interested in linguistics, phonetics, history, accents and English language, this book is a must.

Fantastic book about accents

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The book is read by both authors: dad with a linguistic background and his son, a voice actor. The performance is impeccable and the content of the book will not only serve the linguistic geeks well, but will also be useful advertisers, marketing people and people who would like to know everything :D I particularly loved the bits about astrolinguistics (made me think of its origins, too) and this dialogue structure of the book.

Entertainingly informative and very well performed

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A fascinatingly entertaining story, the balance of voices and the contexts given make this fun.

Informative and full of whimsy and mirth

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I am English but my wife and her friends are not and we laugh and joke about the strangeness of the English language and it's accents. Especially her favourite sketch of two Scots stuck in a voice operated lift.
Yet she is amazed and baffled my all the different accent

Eleven! Please repeat that? Ee-lev-van!

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You Say Potato is a wonderful mix between linguistic research and great anecdotes. Interesting and thoroughly enjoyable - not least because of David and Ben Crystal’s voices.

Thoroughly enjoyable

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Well written and well read. I love the idea of having my sat nav voiced in OP!

Loved it.

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