Whistling Dixie

Sound Bite

Whistling Dixie Whistling Dixie is an exploration of the mysteries of human speech. This book attempts to approach the subject of language in a distinctly personal way by analyzing individual, personal speech patterns and then attempting to relate that intimate analysis to the vast, global tapestry of languages, dialects, and accents as well as to the past and future evolution of human speech itself.Author Wilber Caldwell begins with the origins of human speech and continues with the history of the English language and its dialects, a discussion of American English and its dialects, ending with in-depth examinations of the speech patterns, vocabularies, and accents of the American South in general, of the speech patterns of Southerners around him, and finally of his own, personal speech habits. These are the informed observations of a careful listener who has spent eighty years listening to Southerners speak. Wilber Caldwell’s journey from the lilting drawl of the Georgia Piedmont all the way back to the first human spoken word is a fascinating ride.

About the Book

Most literature that deals with languages, dialects, and accents is quite dry, taking a broad, analytical approach, often attempting to organize a region into geographical, social, ethnic, and other groupings, and then examining the speech of entire groups by cataloging similarities to and differences from some fabricated “standard” model.These studies tend to coldly de-personalize what is, by its very nature, an intimately warm and human subject. In Whistling Dixie, I frequently rely on personal, subjective, assessments of my own speech habits, the speech of those around me, and the speech patterns, vocabularies, and accents of the American South in general as I hear them. Although some of my assessments are speculations, they are the informed speculations of a careful listener who has spent eighty years listening to Southerners speak.In the South, many people take a certain pride in their manner of speech, and most would agree with linguist John McWhorter when he notes “nonstandard dialects are not bastardizations of Standard English, but alternate variations upon the basic plan of English, of which the Standard is but one.” Whistling Dixie is the story a personal variation upon the basic plan of English and its relationship to the wider world of language and human speech.