The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-06-07
American Newspaper English.

It is an old story now, and n true one
that many supposed "Americauislns'ar really
| survivals Of good old English words and
phrases. which were brought 10 this country
centuries ago. and which have had the good
fortune 10 thrive here. while in their ancient
habitat they have persisted from the lirs.
and even from the memory of the people.
Some real Amerlcanlsms our English COUSINS
have found TO be good enough to
be adopted from Us, and there
are others which may never commend
themselves 10 the English taste. but which
are by no means 20 be rashly abandoned by
Americans on that account. Perhaps the
time may come when American English will
be as distinguishable from Australian English
or British English as Ionic Greek was from
the Attic or the DOric; and unless one is
prepared to call II n misfortune that HerOdO-
tus wrote in one dialect and Thucydides in
another, there Is no good reason
for thinking that the American dialect
a century hence will be any more regret
able variation from the mother tongue
than the English which may then
be spoken and written within the sound of
Bow Bells. Such a variation would be regret
able, however. If 1t were the outgrowth of a
slovenly misuse of the noble language. which
Is one OF the best things in our national inner
itance, and therefore we confess TO a certain
nervousness when we hear or read the criti-
cisnls OF American English" which are often
maui W Jul nil dNlOSS Jlt ntd. we OInDOSe
ourselves, however, as best we may. with the
reflection that, taking this country all
over and comparing it with all Britain.
or, for that matter. with all England, quite
as good English-as good in grammatical
construction and better IN pronunciation-is
spoken by natlve-bOrn Americans as by
native bern Brltons. or even by native-born
Englishmen. That we believe 70 be the fact,
and 1t encourages the hcpe that the Ameri-
can English OF the future mas at least as good
a chance Of a normal and telicitous develop
ment as the English Of any part Of Her Mai
esty's present dominions. The extreme Of lit
erary scorn isdIrected against American icy
paper English. We are naturally sensitive on
that score. and chiefly because weare Obliged
TO confess that American newspaper English
Is not always elegant. Blu neither is British
newspaper English invariably elegant. and
when one considers the condition on which
newspaper English. whether British or Amer
lean, is written. the marvel is not that it lacks
some OF of the ~felicities of literary style. nor
that II sometimes lacks verbal and grammati-
cal correctness, but that on the whole it
should be no worse than it is. In
deed, we were surprised to observe how
good much of it is. and there is more
than one American daily newspaper which
gives US a pleasing surprise of that sort very
often. Were 1t otherwise. there might be
some difficulty in finding an unexceptiona-
BILE model on the other side of the water; for
IN all England there are not more than half q
dozen daily papers which, in the matter of
English, could be rated above an equal num-
Der OF American publications that might
easily be named.-The Churchman.