You Say Potato. This item is unavailable.
Language: English
Published by Pan Macmillan, 2015
- Softcover
- Used

Seller: MusicMagpie, Stockport, United KingdomMusicMagpie
AbeBooks seller since December 4, 2017
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 2.91
Seller Inventory # U9781447255468
- Title
- You Say Potato
- Author
- Crystal, Ben; Crystal, David
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan
- Publication year
- 2015
- Condition
- Very Good
- Dust jacket
- 8074106
- Signed
- 3/14/2026 2:46:13 PM
- Binding
- Soft cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1447255461
- ISBN 13
- 9781447255468
- Edition
- 1773499573.
- Seller catalogs
- 1, 9781447255468, U
Some people say scohn, 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.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
David Crystal works from his home in Holyhead, North Wales, as a writer, editor, lecturer and broadcaster. He has published extensively on the history and development of English, including The Stories of English, Evolving English and Spell It Out: The Singular Story of English Spelling. He and his son Ben joined forces to co-write You Say Potato and The Oxford Illustrated Dictionary of Shakespeare. He held a chair at the University of Reading for ten years, and is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Bangor. He was 'Master of Original Pronunciation' at Shakespeare's Globe in London for its productions of Romeo and Juliet and Troilus and Cressida in 2004-5, and has since acted as an accent consultant for other such productions worldwide.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.