Evening star., 1925-06-22
BRITISH SCHOLAR, FRIEND OF u. s..
SLING, TO COMPILE EAMERICANISMS
Noted PhuOIOgist to
Spend Years on
Great York.
Cites Tast Differences in
T,Uo Nations
F. Languages.
BY HAYDEN CHURCH.


Special CORRESPONDENT in London Of The
|; LONDON, June 22.-Prof. William
A. Craigie Of Oxford University, Eng
lands greatest photographer, has
sailed for the United States to spend
several years in the compilation of a
complete dictionary Of the American
language"
This project, initiated by the Uni
versity OF Chicago. is described by the
professor as lone Of the most interest
ing tasks OF scholarship ever under
taken"
For nearly 80 years Prof Craigie has
been one Of the two chief editors Of
the monumental oxford Dictionary,
which has just been completed, al
though the tenth and last volume has
not yet come from the press.
1 talked with him regarding his
plans for his new work in America
We met at his office in the old Ash
mclean Museum at Oxford, an ancient
weather-beaten and much admired
building on Broad street, where the
work of compiling the oxford Diction-
ary has been mainly carried out. There
he showed me, among other quantity
interesting things, his two massive
volumes of DR.. Samuel Johnson's IA
nous dictionary. which, though long
since superseded. has been the basis
or all subsequent works of the kind
L. S. at Dawn of New Era.
THE United States is now at a
period in it's national DEVELOPMENT
which corresponds closely to the Eliza
bethan age in England" said Prof.
Craigie. 1T is a period of intellectual
creativeness and invention. The ex-
traordinary facility that you. as a peo-
pie. exhibit In the coming Of pictur-
esque and expressive slang is only one
of many manifestations of this"
The professor will spend the Sum.
mer at Harvard, conducting a course
on the history of the English Ian
guage in the Summer school there. He
Will go to Chicago in October to be-
gin his work on the new dictionary Of
American English.
Approves Slang.
Does American slang horrifv the
philologist?" I asked him.
Il thoroughly approve of America n
slang, he replied with slow smile.
III Is often carried to excess, but, on
the other hand, many Of your cur
rent colloquial phrases are extremely
apt, and win the admiration of even
the most strict purist In America
slang gets into general conversation
ihucn more widely than in England,
and is therefore more likely to win
place in permanent usage
The real test of slang is its utility.
III slang phrase fills a long felt
want, 1t will get into the language.
mere are some American expressions
OF comparatively recent vintage which
already have been adopted wherever
Engilsh Is spoken, and they are so
particularly apt and expressive that
one wonders how the idea was ex-
pressed before they were invented.
Phrase Wins Approval.
One instance of this is the phra Sc
It's up to you There is no other
group OF English words to convey SO
conclsely this exact shade of mean
ing. Slang expressions of this kind
Will be permanent additions to our
language and obviously must be in
cluded in our new dictionary of
American English"
The philologist explained that the
projected dictionary is not in any
sense dictionary of slang. 1t is
rather a belated recognition by schol-
ars that the American language and
the ian"''age of Great Britain are
no lon5.r exactly the same tongue.
Americans have generally refused
hitherto to admit this fact. But 1t has
long been patent to the British. And
it confronts the travelling American
as soon as, on arriving in England
ne discovers that place is so many
'turnings" way instead of "blocks, -
that he must order a sweet" If he
wants dessert, that a derby" hat in
England is bowler" that a Lon.
don department store has no no
tons" counter, that crackers and
milk in London restaurant must be
| ordered under the nom-de-plume of
biscuit and milk
The study Of American words
which will be a necessary preliminary
to the sizable job of dictionary max
! ing, will be complicated by the ex.
istence of large body of slang and
colloquialisms. dialect and localisms,
| many of which are purely ephemeral
| in character
History of Every Word.
Like the great oxford dictionary
the new Chicago dictionary will trace
the history of every word included in
| 1t from it's earliest known use. Use
In America, of course. Unlike any
| dictionary hitherto produced in Amer
| lea, it will draw it's illustrations OF
liiC use dllu IucdIlUSS OI WOTQS COIIl
posing the language of the United
States exclusively from the writings
of Americans
The previous makers Of American
| dictionaries" said DIR. Craigie, from
Webster onwards, seem to have been
determined to prove that character
istically American words were really
Enthusiastically English. Take the
word Fall, for example, as signifyine
Autumn. 1t is definitely an American
| ism, that is. word which, though
originally a part of English speech
has survived in common usage only
| In America. Yet even the Century
| Dictionary, in illustrating its use, does
| so from the writings of three Eng
lish authors, Dryden, Middleton and
| Tennyson, and only from one Amer
lean, G. A. Freeman"
AS we looked over together the
| ancient volumes which represented the
| pioneer achievement of DR.. johnson
| DR.. Craigie quoted with an appreci
| ative chuckle the great photographers