Book & podcast collection

Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents

byValerie Fridland

Linguist Valerie Fridland explains where accents come from and why no one speaks without one. She connects sound production with childhood learning, migration, geography, identity, social networks, and unconscious imitation, showing how speech changes across both place and time. The book examines why certain pronunciations become prestigious while others are mocked, and why people often mishear unfamiliar patterns as careless or incorrect. Fridland replaces accent myths with linguistic evidence, revealing speech as a flexible record of belonging and demonstrating that supposedly funny voices follow coherent, creative rules.

Publisher

Viking

Publication date

2026-04-21

Format

Hardcover

Pages

320

ISBN

9780593830482