“The Story of Southern English” by Dr. Sean Barnette

Date: Tuesday, February 22

Time: 5:30 – 7:00 pm (refreshments and libations available @ 5:30 pm, lecture begins @ 6:00 pm)

Address: The Arts Center of Greenwood, 120 Main Street, Greenwood, SC 29646

Admission: FREE & OPEN TO THE COMMUNITY

Description:

The Arts Center of Greenwood is teaming up with Lander University to provide a new series of faculty lectures for the community during the fall and spring! The third lecture, being held on Tuesday, February 22 at The Arts Center of Greenwood (reception hall), is entitled “The Story of Southern English” by Dr. Sean Barnette!

Sean Barnette’s lecture will examine one of the most iconic features of the US South: our language. Love it or hate it, almost everyone has an opinion about our words, our sayings, and most of all our accents. But it turns out our language is far more than just a curiosity, and looking closely at Southern language can tell us not only about the history and culture of the South but also about how human language works in general. Professor Barnette will discuss the origins of Southern English, as well as the sounds and grammar that make it different from other varieties, showing why our language isn’t just lazy or “bad English,” as some people may think, but elegant, rule-governed, and worth taking seriously.

Biography:

Dr. Sean Barnette is a professor in the Department of English and Foreign Languages at Lander University and assistant director of the Honors College. He holds an MA in linguistics from the University of South Carolina, and a PhD in rhetoric from the University of Tennessee.

Contact: Suzann Couts, scouts@lander.edu / Mark Rollins, mrollins@lander.edu