American Language (117 page)
Authors: H.L. Mencken
70
The etymology of this word is mysterious. It seems to suggest
Prussian
, but I have been unable to find any evidence of a connection.
71
I am indebted here to Our Own Language,
Railroad Men’s Magazine
, June, 1930, and to an Old Timers’ Dictionary issued by the Central Vermont Railway, the latter kindly sent to me by Mr. J. H. Fountain. In 1925 the Pennsylvania Railroad printed a brief glossary on the bills-of-fare of its dining-cars. It was reprinted in
American Speech
, Jan., 1926, p. 250. See also Railroad Terms, by F. H. Sidney,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Pt. V, 1916; A Glossary of Pullman Service Terms,
Pullman News
, Sept., 1922; Railroad Lingo, by Grover Jones,
Bookman
, July, 1929; Railroad Slang, by Robert S. Harper,
Writer’s Digest
, May, 1931; Railroad Lingo, by Russell V. Bade,
American Speech
, Feb., 1934. There is some interesting and unfamiliar matter in The Sign Language of Railroad Men, by Charles Carpenter,
American Mercury
, Feb., 1932.
72
I am indebted here to Mysteries of the Carnival Language, by Charles Wolverton,
American Mercury
, June, 1935. See also Carnival Cant, by David W. Maurer,
American Speech
, June, 1931, and Carnival Slang, by E. P. Conkle, the same, Feb., 1928, p. 253.
73
The best available glossary is in Circus Words, by George Milburn,
American Mercury
, Nov., 1931. See also A Circus List, by Percy W. White,
American Speech
, Feb., 1926, and More About the Language of the Lot, by the same, the same, June, 1928.
74
The chautauqua, now also virtually extinct, developed an argot much more decorous than that of the circus and carnival. It is embalmed for posterity in Chautauqua Talk, by J. R. Schultz,
American Speech
, Aug., 1932. Mr. Schultz printed a brief supplement in
American Speech
, Oct., 1934, p. 233.
75
Trouper Talk,
American Speech
, Oct., 1925.
76
This was printed in the Conning Tower in the New York
World
, but I have been unable to determine the date.
77
For the former, see American Stage-Hand Language, by J. Harris Gable,
American Speech
, Oct., 1928, and for the latter The Strange Vernacular of the Box-Office, New York
Times
, Oct. 30, 1925.
78
For this lovely phrase I am indebted to Mr. Harry Van Hoven.
79
An inadequate one is in Stage Terms, by Percy W. White,
American Speech
, May, 1926, and an even more scanty one is in Theatrical Lingo, by Ottilie Amend, the same, Oct., 1927. Neither of these lexicographers shows any sign of having had personal experience in the theater. Rather better ones are in The Language of the Theatre, by B. Sobel,
Bookman
, April, 1929, and A Primer of Broadway Slang, by Walter Winchell,
Vanity Fair
, Nov., 1927. The latter includes some attempts at etymologies. The peculiar vocabulary of the theatrical weekly,
Variety
, which has supplied Broadway with many neologisms, is described in The Language of Lobster Alley, by Hiram Motherwell,
Bookman
, Dec., 1930, and
Variety
, by Hugh Kent,
American Mercury
, Dec., 1926.
Variety
was edited until his death in 1933 by Sime Silverman. In an obituary of him by Epes W. Sargent, printed in his paper on Sept. 26, 1933, it was stated that at the start
Variety
was “written in the English language,” but that it “never really bit into the business until Sime changed his policy and wrote as a majority of the actors of that day spoke.… It was not that he could not write English, but that most variety actors of that day did not speak it.” Here is a specimen heading from
Variety
, reprinted in the Manchester
Guardian
, Jan. 30, 1930:
Pash Flaps M. C.
Fan Clubs Rated
Worthless to Theatres
As B. O. Gag.
The
Guardian
explained to its English readers that the intention here was “to convey the assurance that impassioned young women (flaps, flappers) organized into clubs because of their admiration for the master of ceremonies (usually the leader of the orchestra), have been found useless as a device for increasing box-office receipts.” Some recent specimens from
Variety: to air
(to go on the air),
crix
(pi. of critic),
outstander
(one who is outstanding),
builder-upper, juve
(juvenile),
to guest
(to appear as a guest),
to ready
(to make ready).
80
Los Angeles, 1935. A shorter word-list is in Movie Talk, by Albert Parry,
American Speech
, June, 1928. There is a very brief list of radio terms in Radio Slang, by Hilda Cole,
Radioland
, March, 1935. For the usage in England, which differs considerably from that in this country, see A Dictionary of Wireless Terms, by R. Stranger; London, 1933.
81
I must content myself with references to only a small part of the literature:
Auctioneers:
Jewelry Auction Jargon, by Fred Witman,
American Speech
, June, 1928.
Aviators:
Aviation Lingo, by P. R. Beath,
American Speech
, April, 1930; The Speech of the American Airmen, by Chalmers K. Stewart; Akron, O., 1933 (a master’s dissertation, still in MS).
Beauticians:
Beauty Shoppe Jargon, by N. R. L., the same, April, 1928.
Cattlemen:
Cow Country Lingo, Chicago
Daily News
, Aug. 14, 1922; Nebraska Cow Talk, by Melvin Van Denbark,
American Speech
, Oct., 1929; The Idiom of the Sheep Range, by Charles Lindsay, the same, June, 1931; Ranch Diction of the Texas Panhandle, by Mary Dale Buckner, the same, Feb., 1933.
Firemen:
Firemen Invent Their Own Slang, New York
Sun
, March 16, 1932; The Word
Potsy
, the same, March 26, 1932.
Fishermen:
Schoonerisms: Some Speech-Peculiarities of the North-Atlantic Fishermen, by David W. Maurer,
American Speech
, June, 1930.
Furniture salesmen:
Furniture Lingo, by Charles Miller, the same, Dec., 1930.
Lumbermen:
Logger Talk, by Guy Williams; Seattle, 1930; Logger Talk, by James Stevens,
American Speech
, Dec., 1925; Sawmill Talk, by Edward Herry, the same, Oct., 1927; Lumberjack Lingo, by J. W. Clark, the same, Oct., 1931; It Ain’t English, But It’s Hiyu Skookum, by Stewart H. Holbrook, Portland
Sunday Oregonian
, Nov. 11, 1934.
Lunch-wagon attendants:
Lunch-Wagon Slanguage,
World’s Work
, Feb., 1932.
Miners:
The Lingo of the Mining Camp,
American Speech
, Nov., 1926; Mining Town Terms, by Joseph and Michael Lopushansky, the same, June, 1929; Mining Expressions Used in Colorado, by L. J. Davidson, the same, Dec., 1929; California Gold-Rush English, by Marian Hamilton, the same, Aug., 1932.
Musicians:
Radio Bandmen Speak a Strange Language at Their Labors, by Louise Reid, New York
American
, June 22, 1935; Hot Jazz Jargon, by E. J. Nichols and W. L. Werner,
Vanity Fair
, Nov., 1935; Jazzing Up Our Musical Terms, by A. C. E. Schonemann,
American Speech
, June, 1926.
Newspaper reporters:
Newspaper Nomenclature, by Dorothy Colburn, the same, Feb., 1927; Going to Press, the same, Dec., 1928.
Oilfield workers:
The Language of the Oil Wells, by Clark S. Northup,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. II, Pts. V and VI, 1903–4; Oil Field Diction, by A. R. McTee,
Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society
, No. IV, 1925; Language of the California Oil Fields, by F. R. Pond,
American Speech
, April, 1932.
Postoffice workers:
Speech in the Post Office, the same, April, 1932.
Sailors:
Navy Slang, by B. T. Harvey,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Pt. II, 1914; Navy Terms,
American Speech
, March, 1926; Sailor Words, by E. J. Croucher,
Word-Lore
, April, 1928; Fo’c’sle Lingo, by Jack Healy,
American Speech
, April, 1928; Elegy for a Dying Tongue, by C. B. W. Richardson,
Scribnefs
, Aug., 1935.
Shoe salesmen:
Lingo of the Shoe Salesman, the same, Dec., 1934.
Sugar-beet workers:
Sugar Beet Language, the same, Oct., 1930.
Taxi-Drivers:
The Taxi Talk, by George Mil-burn,
Folk-Say
, Vol. I, 1929.
Telegraphers
and linemen: Some Telegraphers’ Terms, by Hervey Brack-bill,
American Speech
, April, 1929; Lineman’s English, by C. P. Loo-mis, the same, Sept., 1926.
Undertakers:
Mortuary Nomenclature,
Hygeia
, Nov., 1925. The general terminology of the American labor movement is dealt with in Bulletin No. 25, Bureau of Business Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, 1921.
82
For an extensive glossary see The Terminology of Social Workers, by LeRoy E. Bowman,
American Speech
, June, 1926.
83
For the librarians see Library Language, by Nellie Jane Compton,
American Speech
, Nov., 1926. For the nurses see Hospital Talk, by Dorothy Barkley, the same, April, 1927. For the fire insurance brethren see Fire Insurance Terminology, by H. B. Bernstein, the same, July, 1926.
84
For the benefit of students who wish to travel further down this lane I append a brief bibliography of oddities: Aquarium English, by Ida Mellen,
American Speech
, Aug., 1928; The Language of the Saints [
i.e.
, Mormons], by Dorothy N. Lindsay, the same, April, 1933; The Speech of Plain Friends [
i.e.
, Quakers], by Kate W. Tibbals, the same, Jan., 1926; Some Peculiarities of Quaker Speech, by Anne W. Comfort, the same, Feb., 1933; The Catholic Language, by Benjamin Musser,
Ecclesiastical Review
, Dec., 1926; The Book Reviewer’s Vocabulary, by W. O. Clough,
American Speech
, Feb., 1931; Auto-Tourist Talk, by L. J. Davidson, the same, April, 1934; Legal Lingo, by Reuben Oppenheimer, the same, Dec., 1926; A Dictionary of American Politics, by Edward Conrad Smith; New York, 1924; Twisting the Dictionary to Pad Political Vocabulary, New York
Times
, Dec 16, 1923; American Political Cant, by Lowry Charles Wimberly,
American Speech
, Dec., 1926; and More Political Lingo, by the same, the same, July, 1927.
THE FUTURE OF THE LANGUAGE
I. THE SPREAD OF ENGLISH
The English tongue is of small reach, stretching no further than this island of ours, nay not there over all.
This was written in 1582. The writer was Richard Mulcaster, headmaster of the Merchant Taylors’ School, teacher of prosody to Edmund Spenser, and one of the earliest of English grammarians. At the time he wrote, English was spoken by between four and five millions of people, and stood fifth among the European languages, with French, German, Italian and Spanish ahead of it in that order, and Russian following. Two hundred years later Italian had dropped behind but Russian had gone ahead, so that English was still in fifth place. But by the end of the Eighteenth Century it began to move forward, and by the middle of the Nineteenth it had forced its way into first place. Today it is so far in the lead that it is probably spoken by as many people as the next two European languages — Russian and German — combined.
It is not only the first — and, in large part, the only — language of both of the world’s mightiest empires; it is also the second language of large and populous regions beyond their bounds. Its teaching is obligatory in the secondary schools of countries as diverse as Germany and Argentina, Turkey and Denmark, Portugal and Rumania, Estonia and Japan. Three-fourths of all the world’s mail is now written in it, it is used in printing more than half the world’s newspapers, and it is the language of three-fifths of the world’s radio stations.
1
No ship captain can trade upon the oceans without some knowledge of it; it is the common tongue of all the great ports, and likewise of all the maritime Bad Lands, from the South Sea Islands and the China Coast to the West Coast of Africa and the Persian
Gulf.
2
Every language that still resists its advance outside Europe — for example, Spanish and Portuguese in Latin-America, Italian and French in the Levant, and Japanese, Chinese and Hindi in the Far East — holds out against it only by making large concessions to it. Spanish is under heavy assault from English, and especially from American, in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Isthmian region, and everywhere in South and Central America it has taken in many English and American words.
3
Japanese has gone even further. Professor Sanki Ichikawa, of the University of Tokyo, reports that in a few months’ reading of Japanese newspapers and magazines he encountered 1400 English words,
4
and Dr. Sawbay Arakawa lists nearly 5000 in his “Japanized English.”
5
“Of the various European languages which have left a mark on the Japanese vocabulary,” says Professor Ichikawa, “English is by far the most important, and its future influence will probably be such that not only words and expressions will continue to be borrowed in greater numbers, but even the structure and grammar of the Japanese language will be considerably modified.” Chinese, at least along the coast, seems destined to go the same way. According to Professor Tsung-tse Yeh, of Tsing Hua University, Peking,
6
its stock of English loan-words has been greatly reinforced since the revolution of 1911, and it is now fashionable for journalists and other vernacular, writers to make a large show of them. Dr. Tsung-tse presents only a meager list, but in it I find four Americanisms —
p’u-k’e
for
poker, fan-shih-ling
for
vaseline, te-lu-feng
for
telephone
, and
ch’ueh-erh-ssu-teng
for
Charleston
(dance). According to another Chinese, Dr. W. W. Yen,