Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-08-19

Is also immensely entertaining"
Since that time the Sage has not
abandoned his researches but has
gone on laboring strenuously in his
chosen vineyard. The result is the
present Supplement l." volume
of over TOO pages and the promise
of Supplement II" of about the
same dimensions to come forth
within year.
The term supplement" Mr.
Mencken warns, is to be taken lit
orally. The present volume consists
of new material altogether and is,
keyed to the fourth edi-
ton by the use of the same head
ings as appeared in that work. 1t
covers only the first six chapters,
or about half, of the parent VOL
ume, which will give the reader
some idea of the voluminousness of
the additions. The latter half will
be covered in the promised Sup
plement H." The supplements, in
other words. will lengthen out the
fourth edition to about three times
its original length.
1t is glad news. THE American
Language" is work of scholarship
which is also immensely entertain
ing.
In supplement I" the added ma
terial, following, as noted, the form
of the fourth edition, traces various
influences which have caused the
separation of the two streams OF
English from the days when early
colonists had to add such words as
"tomahawk" and Johnny cake" to
their vocabularies down to the pres
ent. Such concrete stimuli to word
making as the new country and the
mixture of varied nationalities are
given due attention but the great
reason for the linguistic schism, in
Mr.. Mencken's view, has been the
carrying on in America of the Gre
alive Elizabethan habit of mind to-
ward speech. The 18th century In
England was one of notorious for
malism and had a consequent dead
ening effect on the language. The
colonies escaped this arrestation
and, additionally stimulated by
their new surroundings, set out on
a matchmaking spree which still
continues. It has borne a lot of
improbable fruit, as Mr.. Mencken
points out, such as the explosion
of tall talk" which took place
in the midyears of the 10Th CEN
fury. But it stands as a demon
stration of pioneering attitude of
the American mind.
British and american English
Considering British and Ameri-
can English at present, Mr.. Men
cken still finds that the latter is
in the dominant position. The citi-
zens of the United Kingdom whose
position in the world is indicated by
the gentle phrase, '1ower orders, f"
accept American amendments to
their common speech constantly
and with enthusiasm, whence, as he
sees it, the amendments move up
ward. Whereas British word i'm
ports to America catch on, if at all,
only among our upper crust, where
they stay. They remain somewhat
prissy affectations among us while
our own words and phrases tend
to become parts of regular British
speech.
The supplement, like the parent
work, is no lexicon. It explores the
influences which have been at work
on our language and merely gives
examples. Some of these are ex-
cellent reading, as Mr.. Mencken's
modest account of the way he
brought about Miss Gypsy Rose
Lee dissenting) the substitution of
the chaste term "ecdysiast" for
"Stripteaser." Also, as in the par
ent work, there are some apparent
errors. The phrase "fed up" for in
stance, Mr.. Mencken lists as a Brit
icism impossible to Americans, but
I have been using it for 20 years
without even knowing that it was
not native, and I do not think that