Pointedly referring to Dr. Matthews' probable disdain, Mencken says that writers appear to "delight" in localisms. While Americans have adapted to British-English and the British find it more difficult to do the opposite, seeing an indignity in differentiation, both sides have come to admit there is a separation of British-English and American-English. This distinction is clearest in the ways of writers who, he says, are 1) increasingly focusing on the "growing difficulties of intercommunication;" and 2) find like Sydney Low does that the teaching of formal languages in both England and America should also include American-English.
American plays become a matter of confusion and contention, he writes. When a "racier" American play runs in England, writers like the London Daily Mail's W. G. Faulkner make great efforts to understand and explain. Faulkner proceeds with.....
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 857 words. This
study guide contains 36,652 words (approx. 122 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Literature Guide with our The American Language Access Pass.
