Abstract

Our Barbarous Lingo

The article focuses on the book "The American Language. An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States," by H.L. Mencken. Mencken's attitude is avowedly that of an amateur making an inquiry; he does not pretend to expert knowledge of philology but assumes only the right of an intelligent man to explore and report what he has found. The first edition of the book, published in 1919, was put out as a feeler to provoke discussion and invite assistance. This, the second edition, embodies the results of further investigations and of voluminous responses to his earlier inquiry. He has compiled his material with such careful labor that the most diligent scholar must respect him, and he has expressed his ideas with his customary command of the English language, from which American derives.