American Language (76 page)

Thus Webster gradually conquered the country, and many, though certainly not most, of the reformed spellings he advocated
at one time or another are the American standard today. Moreover, not a few of them have been adopted in England, and others seem to be making headway there. This invasion, of course, does not go without resistance, and every now and then there is an uproar in the English papers against American orthography, matching in virulence the perennial uproars against American slang. Back in 1892 Brander Matthews noted sadly “the force, fervor and frequency of the objurgations in the columns of the
Saturday Review
and of the
Athenœum.
”
¹²
Those objurgations continue to be launched in the more finicky section of the English press to this day. Here is a specimen from a letter in the Literary Supplement of the London
Times
, the object of the assault being an edition of Walter Pater’s “Marius the Epicurean” with certain somewhat gingery concessions to American usage:

But such uncompromising defenders of English spelling lead a forlorn hope. Not only is there a general movement toward American forms in the newspapers — including the
Times
itself —; there is also a general yielding by English “authorities.” The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Brothers Fowler, which came out in
1914, offers plenty of examples. The authors say in their preface that they “stop short of recognizing forms that at present strike every reader as Americanisms,” but they surely go far enough. In all the words ending in
-ise
and
-isation
the English
s
is changed to the American
z
. They prefer
leveler
to
leveller
and
riveted
to
rivetted
, though clinging sentimentally to
traveller
. They retain the first
e
in
judgement
, but omit it from
likeable
, and even go ahead of American usage by omitting it from
mileage
. They dismiss the
-or
ending as “entirely non-British,” but concede that it is necessary in
horror
and
torpor
. Finally, they swap the English
y
for the American
i
in
tire, cider
and
siphon
, recognize
a
as a variant for
y
in
pyjama
, concede that
jail
is as good as
gaol
, prefer the American
asphalt
to the English
asphalte, toilet
to
toilette
, and
balk
to
baulk
, and admit
program, wagon, check
(on a bank) and
skeptic
without precisely endorsing them. The monumental Oxford Dictionary upon which the Concise Oxford is grounded shows many silent concessions, and quite as many open yieldings — for example, in the case of
ax
, which is admitted to be “better than
axe
on every ground.” Moreover, many English lexicographers tend to march ahead of it, outstripping the liberalism of its editor, the late Sir James A. H. Murray. In 1914, for example, Sir James was still protesting against dropping the first
e
from
judgement
, but two years earlier the “Authors’ and Printers’ Dictionary,” edited by Horace Hart,
¹⁴
Controller of the Oxford University Press, had dropped
judgement
altogether. “The Authors’ and Printers’ Dictionary” was, and is, an authority approved by the Master Printers’ and Allied Trades’ Association of London, the Edinburgh Master Printers’ Association, the Belfast Printing Trades Employers’ Association, and the executive committee of the London Association of Correctors of the Press,
i.e.
, proofreaders. Hart is now dead, but the seventh edition (1933), revised by some unnamed hand, continues to show a great many characteristic American spellings. For example, it recommends the use of
jail
and
jailer
in place of the English
gaol
and
gaoler
, drops the final
e
from
asphalte
and
stye
, changes the
y
to
i
in
cyder, cypher
and
syren
, and advocates the same change in
tyre
, drops the redundant
t
from
nett
, changes
burthen
to
burden
, spells
wagon
with one
g
, prefers
fuse
to
fuze
, and takes the
e
out of
storey
. “Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford,” also edited by Hart (with the advice of Sir James Murray and Dr. Henry Bradley) is another very influential English authority.
¹⁵
It gives its imprimatur to
bark
(a ship),
cipher, siren, jail, story, tire
and
wagon
, and even advocates
kilogram, tiro
and
omelet
. Cassell’s New English Dictionary
¹⁶
goes quite as far. Like the “Authors’ and Printers’ Dictionary” and the Concise Oxford it clings to the
-our
and
-re
endings and to the redundant
a
in such words as
æsthete
and
anœsthesia
, but it prefers
jail
to
gaol, net
to
nett, story
to
storey, asphalt
to
asphalte, tire
to
tyre, wagon
to
waggon, vial
to
phial
, and
pygmy
to
pigmy
.

There is, however, much confusion among these authorities; the English are still unable to agree as to which American spellings they will adopt and which they will keep under the ban for a while longer. The Concise Oxford and the “Authors’ and Printers’ Dictionary” prefer
bark
to
barque
and the late Poet Laureate, Dr. Robert Bridges,
¹⁷
adopted it boldly, but Cassell still clings to
barque
. Cassell favors
baritone
; the Oxford and the A. and P. are for
barytone
. The Oxford is for
czar
; Cassell and the A. and P. for
tsar
. The Oxford admits
program
; Cassell and the A. and P. stick to
programme
. Cassell and the A. and P. adopt the American
scimitar
; the Oxford retains the English
scimetar
. All three have abandoned
enquire
for
inquire
, but they remain faithful to
encumbrance, endorse
and
enclose
, though the Oxford and Cassell list
indorsation
and the Oxford also gives
indorsee
. Both the Oxford and Cassell have abandoned
œther
for
ether
, but they cling to
œsthetic
and
œtiology
. Neither gives up
plough, cheque, connexion, mould, mollusc
or
kerb
, and Cassell even adorns the last-named with an astounding compound credited to “American slang,” to wit,
kerbstone broker
. All the English authorities that I have consulted prefer the
-re
and
-our
endings; nevertheless, the London
Nation
adopted the
-or
ending in 1919,
¹⁸
and George Bernard Shaw had adopted it years before,
¹⁹
as had Walter Savage
Landor before him. The British Board of Trade, in attempting to fix the spelling of various scientific terms, has often come to grief. Thus, it detaches the final
-me
from
gramme
in such compounds as
kilogram
and
milligram
, but insists upon
gramme
when the word stands alone. In American usage
gram
is now common, and scarcely challenged. A number of spellings, some of them American, are trembling on the brink of acceptance in both countries. Among them is
rime
(for rhyme). This spelling was correct in England until about 1530, but its recent revival was of American origin. It is accepted by the Concise Oxford, by the editors of the “Cambridge History of English Literature,” and by many English periodicals, including
Notes and Queries
, but not by Cassell.
Grewsome
has got a footing in both countries, but the weight of English opinion is still against it.
Develop
(instead of
develope
) has gone further in both. So has
engulf
, for
engulph
. And most English newspapers have begun to drop the redundant
a
in
medieval, esophagus
, etc. But they still spell
bologna
(sausage)
balony
, thus rivaling but not imitating Al Smith’s
baloney
.

There is not much movement of English spellings in this direction; the traffic, as in the case of neologisms, runs heavily the other way. At Bar Harbor, in Maine, a few of the more Anglophil Summer residents are at pains to put
harbour
instead of
harbor
on their stationery, but the local postmaster still continues to stamp all mail
Bar Harbor
, the legal name of the place.
²⁰
In the same way American haberdashers of the more doggy sort sometimes advertise
pyjamas
instead of
pajamas
, just as they advertise
braces
instead of
suspenders
, and
boots
instead of
shoes
. But this benign folly does not go very far. Even the most fashionable jewelers in Fifth avenue still deal in
jewelry
, not
jewellery
. The English
ketchup
has made some progress against the American
catsup
, and
cheque
has come into use of late among American accountants, but only as a convenient means of distinguishing between a bank
check
(to which it is applied) and
check
in the sense of a verification. Sometimes an American book, intended also for circulation in England, is printed in what American printers call English spelling. This English spelling, at best, is a somewhat lame compromise, and seems to be passing out. As used at the Riverside Press,
²¹
it embraced until a few years ago, all the
-our
endings and the following further forms:

But in the latest edition of the Riverside Press’s Handbook of Style
²²
all save the
-our
endings have been omitted, and I am informed by Mr. Henry A. McLaughlin of the Press that English spellings are used “only when we are doing books by English authors, and the English author prefers to have us follow the English usage rather than our own.” Another great American press, that of the J. S. Cushing Company, follows a list which includes both the
-our
endings and these words:

This list, along with the
-our
endings, appears also in the style-book of the Macmillan Company, the largest of the English-American publishing firms.
²⁴
It would seem to need revision, for, as we have seen, the English themselves have begun to abandon
gaol, storey, waggon, judgement
and
pigmy
, and are showing a considerable
uncertainty about
enquire
. “The Authors’ and Printers’ Dictionary,” indeed, now prefers the American
brier
to the English
briar, dryly
to
drily, install
to
instal, lackey
to
lacquey, naught
to
nought, postilion
to
postillion, shyly
to
shily
and
veranda
to
verandah
, and allows
reflection
for
reflexion
. Thus there is little of English spelling left save the
-our
and
-re
words and the charges of fraud. The Government Printing Office at Washington has followed “Webster’s New International” since 1864, when the Superintendent of Public Printing (he became the Public Printer in 1895) was authorized by law to determine “the forms and style in which the printing … ordered by any of the departments shall be executed.” He issued his first Style Manual in 1887 and it has been revised a number of times since. Down to 1929 it was edited by a board of employés of the Government Printing Office, but in that year representatives of the State, Commerce, Agriculture and Interior Departments and of the Smithsonian Institution were invited to participate. A copy of this work is in the proofroom of nearly every American magazine and newspaper. It favors American spelling in all cases, and its rules are generally observed. The
Atlantic Monthly
, alone among American magazines of wide circulation, is inclined to be more conservative, probably under the influence of Worcester. It uses the
-re
ending in words of the
center
class, retains the
u
in
mould, moult
and
moustache
, retains the redundant terminal letters in such words as
gramme, programme
and
quartette
, retains the final
e
in
axe
and
adze
, and clings to the double vowels in such words as
mediœval
and
anœsthesia
. In addition, it uses the English
plough, whiskey, clue
and
gruesome
, differentiates between the noun
practice
and the verb
to practise
, and makes separate words of
to ensure
, to make certain, and
to insure
, to protect or indemnify.
²⁵