First Course Segment

• American vs British English: Basic Differences and Influences of Change (Introductory outline)
• Selected Vocabulary Differences Between British and American English
• Background Notes on American and British English
• Building a Nation With Words (Cohen)
• Differences in the UK and US Versions of Four Harry Potter Books
• Differences Between British and American English in 2 Versions of The Great Gatsby (Paatero 2002)
• 'Localization' of Food Terms in Children's Books
• Lost in Translation . . . (Evans)
• A Briton's Guide to Confusing and Embarrassing Words (Between British and American English)
• (British) English Translated for Americans [Leverich]
• Overview of U.S. Food Customs and Terminology
• Food and Cooking Terminology: British to American
• 'Canola' vs 'Rapeseed' or 'Rape' Oil
• Examples of British-American Automotive Translations
• Television Subtitling 'Mistranslation' Examples

Second Course Segment
Ethnic and Regional Dialects, Stereotypes and Caricatures

• Language and Cultural Stereotyping
• The New Yorker's Stereotype of New Jersey
• Regional Dialects: Geographical Varieties of American English (videotape guide)
• American Tongues Videotape Outline
• Followup on the American Tongues Videotape
• Dialect and Identity in American English
• Why Do People in New Orleans Talk That Way? (Sheidlower)
• A Dialect Map of American English (see also map separately)
• American Regional Speech and Dialect Samples

Third Course Segment
Historical and Ethnic Influences on American English

• Regional and Ethnic Identities in American English
• The German Language in America (Ford)
• German-Americans and World War I
• Selected Language Distribution Maps
• Loan Word Examples One and Two

Yiddish and Ethnic-Jewish Influence in American English

• Yiddish and Ethnic-Jewish Influence in SAE
• Examples of Ethnic-Jewish Humor and Cultural References
• From Leo Rosten's The Joys of Yiddish
• Brief Yiddish-English Reference Glossary, and Common Yiddish Terms in SAE

Black English (AAVE, BVE, 'Ebonics'): What It Is, What It Isn't

• Black English: What it Is, What it Isn't
• Lexical Differences Between BE and SAE (Martinez)
• Talking the Blues and Examples of Black Literature in SAE
• North American Slave Narratives Archive (UNC-CH)

Spanish Influences on American English

Jargon and Euphemisms

• Euphemisms and Jargon in American English
• Computer Jargon in 'Popular Speech'
• Figures of Speech: Jargon and Slang in American Culture
• 'Understanding the Technology'
• Ethnic Terms Pondered by Linguists, Others ...
• Politically-Correct Terms for 1991

'Forbidden' Words, Terms of Abuse, Expletives

• 'Forbidden' Words, Expletives and Obscenities
• 'Obscenities' from Sophie's Choice, by William Styron
• The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber, by Ernest Hemingway
• Extracts from Pulp, by Charles Bukowski
• The F-Word: Variations and Query

Related Files, Directories and Resources

• Glossary of Quaint Southernisms
• Strine! Australian English Glossary from A to Zed
• 'Wordcount.org': Documentation of the 86,000 most-frequently-used English words
• FAST Glossary Center

Web Links to Other Resources on American, British and World English

• MLA Interactive Map of Languages in the United States
• Lynne Murphy's 'Separated By a Common Language' (US/UK) Blog
• Varieties of English Around the World
• Labov's Phonological Atlas of North America
• What Flavo(u)r English? Links for Translators
• Aaron Drews' (Edinburgh, UK) "American-English/English-American Translation Guide"
• Chris Rae's [Scottish] 'English to American Dictionary'
• WWLib Notes on American English (UK)
• Mike Etherington's "English-American Dictionary"
• 'American Rhetoric' Speech (text and audio) archives
• Native English Speaker Dialect Samples (GMU Speech Accent Archive)
• British English - American English Vocabulary Quiz