The Stuph File Program Talks About The Story of Spanish

Peter Anthony Holder, host of the Stuph File Program, interviews Julie and Jean-Benoît about the many surprising facts they discovered while researching their new book, The Story of Spanish. Listen »

CBC Radio Interview on The Story of Spanish

Listen to CBC’s All in a Weekend radio show from May 11, 2013 where host Sonali Karnick talks with Nadeau & Barlow about The Story of Spanish, their next book on Arabic and their upcoming trip to France. Listen »

Cinco de Mayo: A U.S. Celebration

In this interview with Mike McConnell from WGN radio in Chicago, Julie explains why Cinco de Mayo is more American than Mexican. Listen to the interview »

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PRI’s The World in Words and The Story of Spanish

Patrick Cox from PRI’s The World in Words talks with Julie Barlow about The Story of Spanish. Listen to the podcast » Watch bonus footage of the interview »
Photos of the interview »

The Story of Spanish: Now in Bookstores

More than three years after we started researching and writing The Story of Spanish, it’s finally in stores! Get your copy now at:
Amazon, Amazon.ca, IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Chapters-Indigo and MacMillan.

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The Wall Street Journal: Cinco de Mayo No Hecho en México, Actually

Julie and Jean-Benoît Nadeau published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, May 3. Read the article »

A Compelling Compendium

Booklist’s starred review of The Story of Spanish: “Nadeau and Barlow once again present a thoroughly researched linguistic history. Part anthropological study, part travelogue, this volume is an entirely compelling compendium.” Read more »

Upcoming Events

New York, May 21, 2013: Cervantes Institute
Washington, May 22, 2013: Embassy of Spain in Washington
San Antonio, July 8, 2013: The American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese 95th Annual Conference
For more Nadeau & Barlow upcoming events »

Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau are bestselling authors of books on language and culture. Partners in life and writing, the couple lives in Montreal, Canada with their twin daughters.

Como escritores trilingües, Jean-Benoît Nadeau y Julie Barlow han dedicado sus carreras a cerrar brechas culturales, primero como periodistas, y ahora como autores.

Section: One Million Words

One Million Words ~ Is Quebec French a “Dialect?”

By Nadeau&Barlow | June 2, 2011

Written by Julie Barlow

The American Association of Teachers of French is holding its Annual Conference in Montreal this summer on July 7th, 2011. A member of the AATF recently wrote to us asking if the French spoken in Quebec is really a “dialect” as he had heard from a colleague.

The answer is no. But let’s back up a bit.

What is generally described as a Quebec dialect is a Quebec slang called joual. It is one among many local registers of the language. It is therefore extremely derogatory – or ill-advised– to reduce Quebec French to its slang, just as much as it would be derogatory to reduce American English to its slang, or French from France to argot. Read more »

Also posted in French / Americas, Various | 2 Comments

One Million Words

By Nadeau&Barlow | May 26, 2011

by Jean-Benoît Nadeau

I am always amazed by the number of strong opinions people have about language.

In French, all you have to say is ‘anglicism,’ ‘dictée’, or ‘bon usage,’ and people’s ears perk up. English speakers are preoccupied with Globish. Spanish speakers with Spanglish.

Language is a source of fascination. The more words there are, the stronger the rhetoric gets.

Julie and I thought about calling this weekly blog column “The Language Anthropologist.” But we thought One Million Words said more. We will be writing about linguistics, but our main focus will be interesting facts, as well as the many beliefs, true or false, that people have about language. Read more »