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Information About

John Mcwhorter




McWhorter attended Friends Select School (a Quaker high school in Philadelphia ) and was accepted to Simon's Rock College after tenth grade. Later, he attended Rutgers University and achieved a B.A. degree in French . He received a Master's Degree in American studies from New York University and a Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford University .

He specializes in language change and language contact, including Creole Languages and has studied the Saramaccan language for a forthcoming Grammar . Outside his chosen field of linguistics, he has carved a niche for himself as a media commentator who has criticized what he calls a "self-sabotaging" black culture. He has published a number of successful books and made public and television appearances on the subject.

He has appeared twice in Penn And Teller 's Bullshit! , in the profanity episode in his capacity as a linguistics professor, and in the reparations episode for his political views and knowledge of race relations.

He is also an accomplished (amateur) pianist and composer.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • 1997 ''Towards a New Model of Creole Genesis'' ISBN 0820433128

  • 1998 ''Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of "Pure" Standard English'' ISBN 0738204463

  • 2000 ''The Missing Spanish Creoles: Recovering the Birth of Plantation Contact Languages'' ISBN 0520219996

  • 2000 ''Spreading the Word : Language and Dialect in America'' ISBN 0325001987

  • 2000 ''Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America''

  • 2001 ''The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language'' ISBN 006052085X

  • 2003 ''Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority''

  • 2003 ''Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care'' ISBN 1592400167

  • 2005 ''Defining Creole'' ISBN 0195166698

  • 2005 ''Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America''



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