The American Language An Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States

Perhaps the first truly important book about the divergence of American English from its British roots, this survey of the language as it was spoken-and as it was changing-at the beginning of the 20th century comes via one of its most inveterate watchers, journalist, critic, and editor HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN (1880-1956).In this replica of the 1921 "revised and enlarged" second edition, Mencken turns his keen ear on:

• the general character of American English

• loan-words and non-English influences

• expletives and forbidden words

• American slang

• the future of the language

• and much, much more.

Anyone fascinated by words will find this a thoroughly enthralling look at the most changeable language on the face of the planet.