Title: The American language : an inquiry into the development of English in the United States /
Authors: Mencken, H. L. 1880-1956
Publisher: A.A. Knopf,
Year: 1936
Subjects: English language; Americanisms.; Names United States.; Names, Personal United States; Language
Abstract: The classic work on the evolution of American English from British English, American Pronunciation, spelling, proper names, and slang.
Contents: I. The two streams of English. The earliest alarms -- The English attack -- American "barbarisms" -- The English attitude today -- The position of the learned -- The views of writing men -- The political front -- Foreign observers -- II. The materials of the inquiry. The hallmarks of American -- What is an Americanism? -- III. The beginnings of American. The first loan-words -- New words of English material -- Changed meanings -- Archaic English words -- IV. The period of growth. A new nation in the making -- The expanding vocabulary -- Loan-words and non-English influences -- V. The language today. After the Civil War -- The making of new nouns -- Verbs -- Other parts of speech -- Foreign influences today -- VI. American and English. The infiltration of English by Americanisms -- Surviving differences -- English difficulties with American -- Briticisms in the United States -- Honorifics -- Euphemisms -- Forbidden words -- Expletives -- VII. The pronunciation of American. Its general characters -- The vowels -- The consonants -- Dialects -- VIII. American spelling. The influence of Noah Webster -- The advance of American spelling -- The simplified spelling movement -- The treatment of loan-words -- Punctuation, capitalization, and abbreviation -- IX. The common speech. Outlines of its grammar -- The verb -- The pronoun -- The noun -- The adjective -- The adverb -- The double negative -- Other syntactical peculiarities -- X. Proper names in America. Surnames -- Given-names -- Place-names -- Other proper names -- XI. American slang. The nature of slang -- Cant and argot -- XII. The future of the language. The spread of English -- English or American? -- Appendix : Non-English dialects in America : Germanic -- Latin -- Slavic -- Finno-Ugrian -- Celtic -- Semitic -- Greek -- Asiatic -- Miscellaneous.