Contents
-SUBJECT INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956). The American Language. 1921.
Page 225
colour-line, colour-sergeant, colourable, colourably, neighbourhood, neighbourly, neighbourliness, favourite, favourable, slogger, kilogramme, kilometre, amphitheatre, centremost, baulky, anæsthesia, plough-boy, dreadnought, enclosure, endorsement, and by including forms that are going out of use in England,
e. g., fluxation 2 for
fluctuation, surprize for
surprise, and forms that are still but half established in the United States,
e. g., chlorid, brusk, cigaret, lacrimal, rime, gage, quartet, eolian, dialog, lodgment, niter, sulfite, phenix. According to a recent writer upon the subject, “there are 812 words in which the prevailing American spelling differs from the English.”
3 But enough examples are given here to reveal a number of definite tendencies. American, in general, moves toward simplified forms of spelling more rapidly than English, and has got much further along the road. Redundant and unnecessary letters have been dropped from whole groups of words, simple vowels have been substituted for degenerated diphthongs, simple consonants have displaced compound ones, and vowels have been changed to bring words into harmony with their analogues, as in
tire, cider and
baritone (cf. wire, rider, merriment). Clarity and simplicity are served by substituting
ct for
x in such words as
connection and
inflection, and
s for
c in words of the
defense group. The superiority of
jail to
gaol is made manifest by the common mispronunciation of the latter by Americans who find it in print, making it rhyme with
coal. The substitution of
i for
e in such words as
indorse, inclose and
jimmy is of less patent utility, but even here there is probably a slight gain in euphony. Of more obscure origin is what seems to be a tendency to avoid the
o-sound, so that the English
slog becomes
slug,podgy becomes
pudgy, slosh becomes
slush, toffee becomes
taffy, and so on. Other changes carry their own justification.
Hostler is obviously better American than
ostler, though it may be worse English.
Show is more logical than
shew. 4Cozy is more nearly
