What is Trip of the Tongue Anyway?

First and foremost, Trip of the Tongue is my second book. I’m currently researching and writing it, and it should come out in late 2010. But it’s also a work in progress, which means that specifics-wise, it could be any number of things.

But this is how I sold it to my publisher:

Van Buren, Maine. Dearborn, Michigan. Elko, Nevada.

These are hardly cities that spring to mind when contemplating the history of the United States. None of them were witness to revolutions or constitutions or declarations. George Washington did not live there; Elvis Presley did not play there; Angelina Jolie will not move there.

And yet, each of these cities is home to a legacy more compelling than anything that can be cursorily summed up on Wikipedia. Because they contain a cultural artifact infinitely more informative and evocative than anything you might find in an monument or museum: language.

English might be the nation’s official language, but America teems with linguistic life: throughout the country are pockets of Spanish, Navajo, Norwegian. Northern Maine is home to a majority of French-speakers; a third of Dearborn residents speak Arabic; travel to Elko and you’ll more than likely hear a word or two of Basque.

And these are more than mere peculiarities: the history of each of these languages in the United States offers a rare insight into the turbulent flow of cultural creation, retention, and assimilation.

In Trip of the Tongue, I will take to the city streets and country roads of America to explore the nooks and crannies of the world’s greatest cultural melting pot and to suss out firsthand the fascinating history of language in America. It will be a journey into the sub-cockles of the American character, a fresh, insightful take on many of our country’s most pressing issues - immigration, multiculturalism, and self-identity - through the lens of language, and a new and intriguing history of America from the perspective of a seasoned cross-country traveler and self-described language fanatic.

(Ten points to anyone who identifies the Denis Leary reference.)