Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-22
AMERICAN ENGLISH.
An Interesting Paper by Mr.. Gilbert
M. Tucker.
From the Albany AreuAJ


M. Tucker.
From the Albany ApeuAJ
A meeting of the Albany Institute was
devoted to the reading of an interesting
paper on American English by Mr.. Gil
bert M. Tucker, of the Country Gentle
man, of which the following is an out
line:
After reference, by way of introduce
ton, to the change of opinion which has
taken place in Great Britain since the
time when it was thought the proper
thing to congratulate the American trav-
elers on their good English, the speaker
took as a sort of text an absurd state
ment of Fitzedward Hall, to the effect
that "our language is becoming more
and more depraved IN the Unit, d States"
and remarked that the appearance of
such rubbish in periodical Like the
London Nineteenth Century can only be
accounted for on the supposition that
there must really exist certain noticea-
BILE variations between the styles of writ
ing and speaking that are current en- tie
opposite sides of the Atlantic, for If no
difference at all could be found it is
hardly probable that an intelligent man,
however strongly British his proposes
sions, would care to publish disserta-
ton in which our practice is deliberately
set down as so distinctly inferior to that
OF the English. Among those differences
the following were noted:
1. We have no dialects in this country
either Of locality or OF caste.
2. In regard to enunciation, the aver
age American will make himself heard
and understood, whenever there is
difficulty in hearing, far better than the
average Briton-not by virtue of vocifer-
alton, but on account of his clearer and
more accurate speech, especially in fol-
lowing more closely the spelling. This
Is illustrated by such words as trait,
silver and schedule, which are pro-
nounced in this country according to
regular analogy, but have in Great
Britain special and exceptional pronun-
Citations. It is illustrated more clearly
by dozens of geographical names.
3. American spelling differs from
British in one respect only-its greater
simplicity. Illustrations: Wagon,
parlour, storey (of a house,. pease
(plural of pea), plough. draught, shew,
cyder, gaoi and many other words that
have been simplifed in this country.
4. American speech changes less than
British. (O We have preserved hun
dreds of words that have gone out of use
in Great Britain, and we avoid the use
OF many novelties invented in thatcoun-
try, such as ''totalling" or 'stotting, I"
''hipped," ''heavy," s'fad," ''randomly,"
''ouUlng" and ''tund" co. We avoid
many recent changes in meaning that
are accepted by the English, such as
using ''traffic" for ''travel" or ''passage, !"
famous for excellent" "bargain" for
s'haggle, ':rot" for nonsense" ssjug"
for "pitcher," good form for ssin good
taste, strap" for carriage" ''tub'' for
''bathe, starved" for ''frozen," "stop"
for 'stay," ''assist" for "be present."
'Intimate" for Announce" etc. (cl
We refuse to follow the British in their
arbitrary restriction of meaning of
certain words. Thus, ga young person"
is always a girl in England. The Briton
''rides'' in an omnibus, but always
''drives" In carriage; and, though he
will say that he is confined to sick
room or stretched upon sick bed, he is
Mortified at the idea of being called
..slck" unless suffering from. nausea. (d)
We do not turn active and reflective
verbs into intransirives. &c, We do not
abbreviate SO much. (f) We are not so
apt to get superfuous words ssWhat
ever are you doing?" s'The infant NOR
tality is something enormous. +" 81 don't
say but what this work has got to be
DONE"
5. American writer's of the first class
seem to be, on the whole, rather more
careful about grammar than the British.
(Many instances given of serious errors
by standard British writer's of the present
day, which can be hardly paralleled in
this country.)
OF course, however, nobody denies
that the language has suffered some bad
treatment here as we'll as abroad. No
less than four elaborate lists have ap-
peared OF words supposed to have been
either invented or wrenched from their
proper meanings i'll this country, viz. ::
Pickerings Vocabulary, published in
1916, and containing over 500 words, of
which not more than seventy are really
OF American origin and now In respec:a-
BILE use. 2. Elwyn's Glossary. published
1859, and containing 400 bad words that
have been supposed to be American, but
are really British, one and all. 3. Sch-le
de Vere's Americanisms, published in
1872, and containing about 4, 90, words
and PHRASES. 4. Bartlett's Dictionary,
latest edition. published in 1877.
Some account was given of each of
those books. particularly the last, which
contains about 5000 entries. and might
te supposed to indicate very rapid de-
terioration of the language in this coun-
try. The fact, however, is that not
more than 500 of those are genuine
Americanisms now in decent use. Of
the remainder, nearly 400 are set down
by the author himself as of Brit
ish origin; and at least IT'S more are
certainly British. The rest of the book
say four fths-is made up, partly OF
expressions never in general use, or long
since antiquated; partly of mere mis-
recommendations, grammatical errors, and
unauthorized contractions partly of
vile slang, and partly OF wearisome repe-
titions.
Among Supposed to be) genuine
American ms either ontiralv ON tfe,, ,r