THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 122, 15 February 1908, Page 13

THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE.

, In a tolerant but: not over-appreciative : spirit, -Mr.", Charles Whibloy -discusses the ; "Artiencaiv"'' language" in the January "Blackwood." He pokes fun at Americans >for their-claim to a more antique, purity for thoir speech,' and declares that a vast edifice of mistaken pride has been established upon •. tho insecure .basis of ,three words—'fall," - and'-"bully;" Possibly: an. Ameriv: , cari might-add tho. national .use .-of the word . "guess", in tho sense of '.'suppose," which seems; to. • have some precedent ■;> in"- Chaucer.'; v-Mr.VjVKibley pays due tribute to the richness ■/■ and liveliness of metaphor, m popular, Ameri- •!' , can speech- ; -"a. r language 'of ' tho street and; , • camp, brilliant in colour, multiform in char-, acter, .which has not a-rival in the history of, ■."•■■'jSpeech;'' '.This',is,! i 'ihdeed, , .thegreat i strength • of the "American language." It is con- : : • ■ stantlyii- in ' the making;, its figures of' speech are,not literary fossils. One-could' -wish tliat : Mr. AVhibley ■ had made : : a■. collection''of illustrations. .-Markr-Twaiii's horse' that "lit out of tho country . like a telegram,!! and ... the smile that.faded off the man's face "liko breath olfon a razor," aro. unmistakably :of • - ' individual,art; but:nearly all, Americans seem to possess tho same skill in a, greater, or , less degree. They treat the language,-not as an . heirloom, but as an article of modern utility'. In some'degree they seem even to.havo liept , or recovered tho power of compounding' to •: i create I .now words—a. stiro mark of fluidity v. and: vitality 111 a language. 'We do not' in ; Englandvtalk of"side-stepping a motor-Car" or -,''side-tracking',' -a train 1 or a discussion. Yet these', are English formations—the latter: ; a thoroughly sound one, and more expressive v;- than "dodging," "shunting,",or-"drawing a rod-herring across the trail"—-tho last a , \ somewhat remote metaphor to a, mainly urban 1 population. 'To ' the American popular, pronunciation Mr.. Wliibley allows the merit of distinctness." If that is true,- perhaps .it accounts for the. fact, rather-melancholy to . nn Englishman, that British- colonials and . sailors, and wanderers and borderers genor-. ally, seem ..to speak with something 'of an . American accent—nasal and-monotonous, in. ■ v tone and -stress. Vis it possible that' tho' - American accent., is the mean of all the ,- t .''various pronunciations'of English—the "Midland dialect" of, the wider English-speaking world of to-day?—" Manchester Guardian"