A funny story about the Labov book, Dialect Diversity in America, which I just reviewed. When my parents were visiting last summer, my mom was looking through my bookshelf for something to read. I first gave her The 1% and the Rest of Us (or maybe Nickle and Dimed) and she burned right through it because she’s even more of a socialist than I am. Then I gave her Labov’s book. I know she has a passing interest in language and that she has read other linguistics books aimed at the general public. But while I was in the other room, and she was sitting at the table with my wife, this is what I hear:
My mom: I don’t know how Joseph likes this stuff. Phonetics…?
My wife: Yeah, but he loves it.
My mom: Yes, he does. It’s tough to get through though.
Me: I CAN HEAR YOU!
My wife and my mom: We know!
🙂
My mom read the whole book and she ended up enjoying the final chapters – which deal with history, politics, and social change – more than she did the earlier ones. She couldn’t stop talking about those chapters. I was like, “But Mom, what about that (ING) variable and that Northern Cities Shift?!”