CHOSEN BY THE ECONOMIST AS A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR An American linguist teaching in England
explores the sibling rivalry between British and American English English accents are the
sexiest. Americans have ruined the English language. Such claims about the English language are
often repeated but rarely examined. Professor Lynne Murphy is on the linguistic front line. In
The Prodigal Tongue she explores the fiction and reality of the special relationship between
British and American English. By examining the causes and symptoms of American Verbal
Inferiority Complex and its flipside British Verbal Superiority Complex Murphy unravels the
prejudices stereotypes and insecurities that shape our attitudes to our own language. With
great humo(u)r and new insights Lynne Murphy looks at the social political and linguistic
forces that have driven American and British English in different directions: how Americans got
from centre to center why British accents are growing away from American ones and what
different things we mean when we say estate frown or middle class. Is anyone winning this war
of the words? Will Yanks and Brits ever really understand each other?
