Mencken announces that the superiority of American spelling is due to its rapid advancements despite English objections. English purists who refuse to take English lessons from overseas, he writes, root such opposition, in an "esthetic hatred." Later, however, the English would take on what they knew were "Americanisms." They adopted tendencies to drop silent letters, forego redundancies, and replace certain forms with others. The word-changes instituted by Noah Webster were now English word-changes introduced by America. The scholars in Great Britain, then, had only one more concern, he says, to agree on which spellings to adopt and which to dispense with.
American spelling remained superior, says Mencken, by advancing in spite of.....
This is a free excerpt of 116 words. This section contains 229 words. This
study guide contains 36,636 words (approx. 122 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Literature Guide with our The American Language Access Pass.
