In a dazzling blend of history and linguistics, a Hollywood dialect coach reveals the unexpected ways that accents shape our lives

Why do so many movie villains have British accents? Why do some New Englanders say “carr” and others “cahh?” And why does Alaskan Sarah Palin sound like she’s from Minnesota?

Where do accents come from, and why do people speak with different accents in the first place?

Dialect coach Erik Singer has spent decades training Hollywood actors in the nuances of accents. How we pronounce our words isn’t just a matter of how we move our mouths. Accents come with a host of associations—geography, class, intelligence, attitude—that influence how we express our identities and how we perceive those of others. In The Case of the Disappearing R, Singer offers an irresistible guide to how accents work and what they mean, revealing the hidden ways accents shape our lives.

Language never stops changing: it reflects the churn of human striving and conflict, from sweeping developments like migration and war to the more quotidian intrigue of the high school cafeteria. With wit, erudition, and inexhaustible curiosity, Singer leaps across time and geography to bring a symphony of past and present accents to life. Along the way, he examines what accents might have to do with political polarization, deconstructs the dangerous biases we apply to the ways people speak, and spotlights the ingenuity of the linguists who documented language change in real time. Armed with a dialect coach’s grasp of language from the inside out, we come to understand that an accent is an intricate code that says so much more about us than where we’re from.

Drawing on history, linguistics, and pop culture, The Case of the Disappearing R is an exhilarating tour of the rich variety of human communication and identity.