The American Language by H. L. Mencken
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"The American Language" by H. L. Mencken is a book published in 1919 that examines English as spoken in the United States. Inspired by street argot and Mark Twain, Mencken defended American speech against British critics who dismissed it as a corruption of proper English. He argued that American English was more colorful and creative than its counterpart across the Atlantic. The work explores American variations, names, and slang, challenging prescriptive grammar
rules and celebrating how language evolves independently of textbooks. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956 |
|---|---|
| Title |
The American Language A Preliminary Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States |
| Note | Wikipedia page about this book: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Language |
| Credits |
Produced by Bruce Albrecht, RichardW and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 62.9 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PE: Language and Literatures: English |
| Subject | English language |
| Subject | Americanisms |
| Subject | Names -- United States |
| Subject | Names, Personal -- United States |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 43376 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-43376-9 |
| Release Date | Aug 1, 2013 |
| Last Update | Oct 23, 2024 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 1722 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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