Exactly what does it mean to chat like an American? According to John Russell Bartlett’s 1848 Dictionary of Americanisms, this means indulging in outlandish slang-splendiferous, scrumptious, higgeldy piggedly-and free-and-easy word creation-demoralize, lengthy, gerrymander. American British is a lot more than simply vocabulary, though. It’s a picturesque way of talking that includes expressions like go the whole hog, as well as the outrageous offers of frontiersman Davy Crockett, who claimed to be ‘half equine, half alligator, and a touch of the airthquake.’ Splendiferous Speech explores the primary sources of the American vernacular-the expanding traditional western frontier, the bumptious globe of politics, as well as the sensation-filled web pages of well-known nineteenth-century papers. It’s an activity that started with the initial English colonists (initial phrase adoption-the Algonquian raccoon) and is still going strong today. Writer Rosemarie Ostler will take listeners along within the trip as Americans learn to declare linguistic independence and embrace their own brand of speech. For anyone who wonders how exactly we got in the English of Ruler James to the slang of the Internet, it’s an exhilarating ride.