The American Language

"This is a marvellous book by someone I really idolise. H L Mencken was a terrific journalist flourishing in the 1920s. He wrote for the Baltimore Morning Herald – he was known as the ‘Sage of Baltimore’ – and was very combative and polemical. He saw his job as making trouble as a columnist but in his spare time he was a passionate advocate of what he called the American language. He wrote the book to clarify the discrepancies between British and American English and to define the distinguishing characteristics of American English. In his own way he was as much a nationalist about his language as Johnson was in the 18th century. So they are a kind of pair. His book describes how American English evolved after the Revolution into the way it was in 1920. He saw it as being an international force. Although one of his friends was the English broadcaster Alistair Cooke, he was fairly anti-British and saw the evolution of the American language as a way of defining the nation´s identity. He was very pro what at the time was seen as slang. He thought that was a cause of celebration. His study is undoubtedly the most scientific linguistic work on the American language to date and continues to serve as a definitive resource in the field."