I'm now through the first three chapters of this fantastic book, and thought I would go ahead and share parts of my recent discussion post from the related class I'm taking (The Life and Death of Languages): I grew up in Southern California – the home of the no-accent accent. My maternal grandmother, who did most of my childcare, had a Massachusetts accent. I remember being sent for speech analysis in school one day, and while I was let loose once they determined I had simply picked up my grandma’s accent, it made me highly self-conscious of the way I spoke. I went on a mission afterward, to try to speak 'perfectly.' The focus, initially, was on the accent, but eventually my quest encompassed all aspects of grammar and vocabulary. I didn’t want anyone to ever again think there might be something 'wrong' with me for the way I spoke. Somewhere along the line, that desire to master all the 'rules' turned me into something of a grammar cop. I think I