| Edition |
Fourth edition, cor., enlarged, and rewritten. |
| Description |
xi, 769 pages, xxix, 1 unnumbered page ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographic references throughout. |
| Contents |
Pt. I. The two streams of English: 1. The earliest alarms -- 2. The English attack -- 3. American "barbarisms" -- 4. The English attitude today -- 5. The position of the learned -- 6. The views of writing men -- 7. The political front -- 8. Foreign observers -- Pt. II. The materials of the inquiry: 1. The hallmarks of American -- 2. What is and Americanism? -- Pt. III. The beginnings of American: 1. The first loan-words -- 2. New words of English material -- 3. Changed meanings -- 4. Archaic English words -- Pt. IV. The Period of Growth: 1. A new nation in the making -- 2. The expanding vocabulary -- 3. Loan-words and non-English influences -- Pt. V. The language today: 1. After the Civil War -- 2. The making of new nouns -- 3. Verbs -- 4. Other parts of speech -- 5. Foreign influences today -- Pt. VI. American and English: 1. The infiltration of English by Americanisms -- 2. Surviving differences -- 3. English difficulties with American -- 4. Briticisms in the United States -- 5. Honorifics -- 6. Euphemisms -- 7. Forbidden words -- 8. Expletives -- Pt. VII. The pronunciation of American: 1. Its general characters -- 2. The vowels -- 3. The consonants -- 4. Dialects -- Pt. VIII. American Spelling: The influence of Noah Webster -- 2. The advance of American spelling -- 3. The simplified spelling movement -- 4. The treatment of loan-words -- 5. Punctuation, capitalization, and abbreviation -- Pt. IX. The common speech: 1. Outlines of its grammar -- 2. The verb -- 3. The pronoun -- 4. The noun -- 5. The adjective -- 6. The adverb -- 7. The double negative -- 8. Other syntactical peculiarities -- Pt. X. Proper names in America: 1. Surnames -- 2. Given-names -- 3. Place-names -- 4. Other proper names -- Pt. XI. American slang: 1. The nature of slang -- 2. Cant and argot -- Pt. XII. The future of the language: 1. The spread of English -- 2. English or American? -- Appendix. non-English dialects in America -- List of words and phrases -- Index. |
| Form |
Also available. online. |
| Subject |
English language -- United States.
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Americanisms.
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Names -- United States.
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Names, Personal -- United States.
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Language.
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| Other Form: |
Online version: Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956. American language. 4th ed., cor., enl., and rewritten. New York, A.A. Knopf, 1936 (OCoLC)579753838 |
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