Evening star., 1936-05-09

less, Goddess state Of confusion, chaos
and injustice"
They are eloquent words. The
book is by no means mere eloquence,
however. It abounds with figures to
substantiate its claims. It is highly
thought-provoking, and, best Of all.
it Is written in plain language and
not terms Of mysticism. 1t can be
read and understood.
THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE. BY
H. L. Mencken. Fourth edition.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
ONE Of Mr.. Mencken,s less conspic-
uous claims to be remembered as
an interpreter Of our era Is undoubted-
ly his monumental American, Lam
guage" First published in 1919, this
work has now been revised three times,
each time growing In scope and
strengthening its grasp on its subject.
Hardening to its author in his role Of
grand inquisitor to our follies, We are
sometimes likely to forget the immense
research in largely uncharted field
which this volume represents.
A special degree Of attention. how
ever, deserves to be directed toward
this present volume, which is not q
mere revision of the past work, but an
almost complete rewriting Of 1t. and
even more than that. For 1t Is, as Mr..
Mencken says, a modification OF the
basic thesis which the past editions
set forth.
When I became interested in the
subject" he says, "and began writing
about 1t Qn the Baltimore Evening
Sun in 19l0), the American form Of
the English language was plainly de-
parting from the parent stem, and ID
seemed at least likely that the differ
ences between American and English
would go on increasing. This was
what I argued in my first three edi-
tions. But since 1928 the pull Of
American has become so powerful that
it has begun to drag English with 1t,
and in consequence some Of the Diff
ferences once visible have tended to
disappear. ." The Englishman Of
late has yielded so much to American
example that what he speaks
promises to become, on some not too
remote tomorrow, kind Of dialect Of
American, just as the language spoken
by the American was once a dialect Of
English"
The book contains q history OF the
growth of our peculiar speech, going
back to Colonial times and tracing the
progress of departure from the mother
tongue to the present. 1t discusses pro-
nunciation, spelling, common usases,
proper names and slang.
Coming to the future of the Ian
guage, Mr. Mencken observes that 1t
is spoken by 191O00,000 people-that
is, by twice as many as speak any other
language. He adds that as second
tongue" 1t is by far the commonest
choice in most countries. He then
raises the question-as English spreads
over the globe, which form will prevail,
the American or the British? He feels
distinctly that it will be the American.
His book is a mine of fascinating
material. 1t is infinitely more readable
than any Of the previous editions.
THREE NEW PLAYS. BY George
Bernard Shaw. New York: Dodd
Mead & Co.
IT HAS become so much the fashion
In late years to sniff at Mr.. Shaw
that one would gladly do otherwise,
just for the sake of variety, If that
were possible. However, this is q
pretty sorry volume 1t contains The
Simpleton OF the Unexpected Isles.
THE Six of Calais" and The Mil
lionairess" Except that they are all
written with an exuberant optimism
that seems to indicate that the author
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