John McWhorter’s Followers (1,576)

John McWhorter

Born

in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The United States

October 06, 1965

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JohnHMcWhorter

Genre

Linguistics, Language

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John Hamilton McWhorter (Professor McWhorter uses neither his title nor his middle initial as an author) is an American academic and linguist who is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he teaches linguistics, American studies, philosophy, and music history. He is the author of a number of books on language and on race relations. His research specializes on how creole languages form, and how language grammars change as the result of sociohistorical phenomena.

A popular writer, McWhorter has written for Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Politico, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, The New York D ...more

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John McWhorter’s books

Average rating: 4.0 · 31,963 ratings · 4,679 reviews · 49 distinct works • Similar authors

	Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English 3.82 avg rating — 6,902 ratings — published 2008 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America 3.94 avg rating — 5,973 ratings — published 2021 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter — Then, Now, and Forever 3.95 avg rating — 3,666 ratings — published 2021 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Story of Human Language 4.41 avg rating — 2,819 ratings — published 2004 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3,042 ratings — published 2001 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Words on the Move: Why English Won't—and Can't—Sit Still 4.14 avg rating — 1,844 ratings — published 2016 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language 3.73 avg rating — 1,306 ratings — published 2014	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America's Lingua Franca 4.16 avg rating — 1,099 ratings — published 2016 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Language Families of the World 4.43 avg rating — 877 ratings — published 2019 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Language A to Z 4.29 avg rating — 893 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by John McWhorter (?)

“English, however, is kinky. It has a predilection for dressing up like Welsh on lonely nights.”
― John McWhorter, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English

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“A person you excuse from any genuine challenge is a person you do not truly respect.”
― John McWhorter, Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America

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“Prescriptive grammar has spread linguistic insecurity like a plague among English speakers for centuries, numbs us to the aesthetic richness of non-standard speech, and distracts us from attending to genuine issues of linguistic style in writing.”
― John H. McWhorter, Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of "Pure" Standard English

tags: english-language

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