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From ‘con man’ to ‘rush hour’, New York City has given us numerous popular words and phrases, along the way fashioning a recognisable dialect all its own. In You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English, E. J. White explores a hidden history encompassing social class, immigration, real estate, and the original plan for West Side Story to centre on Jewish and Christian New Yorkers. Here she joins Oldie editor Harry Mount in conversation.

Click here to purchase a copy of You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English – The Dialects of North America by E J White from Blackwell’s.

E. J. White lives in New York with her dog, Victor, and her cat, Aaron Purr. She teaches media studies and the history of the English language at Stony Brook University. She holds degrees from Princeton, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Harry Mount is editor of The Oldie and the author of eight books. He was a leader writer and New York correspondent at the Daily Telegraph and is a former barrister.