I.

AMERICAN IDENTITIES:

During the turn of 19th century, searching for an identity was America’s problem.
America’s main concern was the slow emergence and establishment of its literature
compared with what was happening in Europe at that time. Despite the well-
established genres of sermons, journals, letters, histories, practical manuals,
descriptions of America, and political pamphlets; Ralph Waldo Emerson still
considered it as “barren”. In 1823, public figure, Charles J. Ingersoll, observed
America’s intellectual dependence to Britain, citing the way American presses were
printing a flood of editions of British books and magazines.

The lack of literary works of well-acclaimed literary figures was viewed as the
main reason for the limited lexical growth. But because of the Americans’ hard work
in trying to coin new words, they were able to institute their trademark in literary
tradition, Walt Whitman’s 1st edition of Leaves of Grass (1855) and Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (the best-selling novel of the 19th century) were the best
examples of this beautiful beginning.

• AMERICA TALKING

The new American vocabulary of the 19th century was brought about by a mixture
of languages. Spanish and Native American words were influential in the American
language’s development. The opening of the West and the arrival of waves of
immigrants toward the end of the century were two major factors in lexical
expansion.

Examples:
bronco(1850), cattle town (1881), chaps (1870), corral (1829), cowpoke (1880),
dogie (1888), dude (1883), lariat (1831), lasso (1819), maverick (1867), ranch
(1808), range (1835), roundup (1876), rustler (1882), six shooter (1844),
stampede (1843), tenderfoot (1849), trail boss (1890)

II. BREAKING THE RULES

The American spelling had become so established in the 1860s, that several
writers dared to play about with it and gained fame from doing so. Artemus Ward
(pseudonym of Charles Ferrar Browne, 1834-67) and Josh Billings (pseudonym of
Henry Wheeler Shaw, 1818-85) were the leading proponents of the comic-spelling
genre (somehow related with the puns learned from the Semantics class). Both writers
 used an intuitive semi-phonetic system and neither of them bothered much about
consistency (examples: to is spelled tew, tu, or 2; fun appears both as fun and
phun).

Samples- Josh Billing’s Sayings:

Chaztity iz like an isikel. if it onse melts that’s the last ov it.

After awl ced and dun the gran secret of winning is tew win.

It iz tru that welth won’t maik a man vartouz, but i notis thare ain’t ennyboddy
who wants tew be poor jist for the purpiss ov being good.

III. VARIETY AWARENESS

One of the most interesting features of the 19th century was the Americans’
awareness regarding the nature and the use of language. The compilation of
dictionaries, grammar spelling books, and pronunciation manuals in the 2nd half of the
18th century had focused attention on standard forms. The widespread standardization
brought about the “ordinary” speakers’ sensitivity to the language’s varieties and to
its uses according to social contexts.

The historical relationship between Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin paved the way to
the age of comparative philology (historical linguistics). This discovery stimulated
arguments about the nature of language change, correctness in usage, and methods of
teaching.

• THE LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE

Scientific English was also recognized as a language variety. This was one of the
consequences of the Industrial revolution, e.g. Faraday’s theory on electricity and
Darwin’s theory of evolution. These discoveries gained widespread publicity and
paved the way to the introduction of nomenclatures or scientific terms.

Source:

Linguistic Encyclopedia by David Crystal

Modern English: The American Identities,
Breaking the Rules, and Variety
Awareness

English 110 9:00-10:30 TTH

Submitted by:
Ken Ebbe T. Peña

Submitted to:
Mr. Avelino Guatno