The American Language

About the book

H. L. Mencken begins with an observation familiar to a working editor: English in the United States differs persistently from English in Britain. He collects and compares vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, idiom, and grammar, asking how those differences developed and why speakers and teachers react to them so strongly. Newspapers, everyday speech, names, and slang provide evidence alongside earlier studies. His enthusiasm for American linguistic independence gives the inquiry a combative voice, especially when he confronts prescriptions that ignore common usage. This is the preliminary 1919 version of The American Language, so its examples and classifications belong to that historical moment. It records language as an expression of national experience while displaying the critic's own opinions and limitations.

• Language change
• American identity
• Usage and authority

Why read it

Enjoy an energetic historical investigation of linguistic differences often hidden by the idea of one standard English.

English text of the 1919 first edition