Point/CounterPoint with Linguist John McWhorter - Amherst College

For the first event in this year’s Point/CounterPoint series: The People's Tongue. This is the first in a series of public conversations with Professor Ilan Stavans and guest speakers reflecting on the changing nature of our language.
One of the remaining threads binding Americans to each other and to their past is the English language. But even that is contested. How did English become American? To what extent is it truly national?
Events sponsored by the Office of the Provost and Restless Books

[@Traderbear]

Perhaps the Like gag me with a spoon from the 80s had something to do with it?

[@_ac_7649]

I like really liked this!

[@abdulmaliksaafir2754]

Are you coming to Jumu’ah today?

[@MadSimple]

I've always wondered where the porta potties would go on judgment day

[@philibusters23]

My wife is Fillipino and she didn't come to the U.S. until she was in her 30's. She has pronoun trouble, particularly between he and she because in her native language, Illongo, and I think think the lingua franca of the Philippines, Tagalog (though I could be wrong about Tagalog), the pronouns are not gendered. But she is constantly saying he when referring to a woman or she when referring to a man because it doesn't come natural for her.

[@philibusters23]

I am 40 and I use like. I probably don't use it as much as a 20 year old, but I used it in my youth and I have continued to use it. I don't think 20 years ago when I was forty we used the word as much, the word was on the rise, and I used it more than my parents, but maybe less than today. I have continued to use it.

[@ancientfuture9690]

My best friend of 30 years is Filipino and also does the same thing. Less of it in the past 2-3 years, but up until then he'd always say "he" for "she" and vice versa.

[@Traderbear]

In Spanish isn’t eeeeeee a sort of like?

[@synchronium24]

audio is extremely low

[@Castilda0311]

What is the British equivalent of African-American when referring to dark-skinned residents? I have asked whether “African-British” exists, and the answer is no, but an acceptable term seemingly does not exist.

[@inigo9000]

Black British but that issen't a indication of what family background you have. African British or Caribbean British is something most would identify as