In 1789 het Noah Webster voorgestel dat die Engelse taal laat vaar moet word en dat 'n nuwe standaard vir die Amerikaners opgestel moes word, onafhanklik van Engels en wat in alle skole in die VSA in gebruik geneem moes word: "As an independent nation our honor requires us to have a system of our own, in language as well as government. Great Britain, whose children we are, and whose language we speak, should no longer be our standard, for the taste of her writers is already corrupted, and her language on the decline. But if it where not so, she is at too great a distance to be our model, and to instruct us in the principles of our own tongue...Several circumstances render a future separation of the American tongue from the English necessary and unavoidable.. Numerous local causes, such as a new country, new associations of people, new combinations of ideas in arts and sciences, and some intercourse with tribes wholly unknown in Europe, will introduce new words into the American tongue.