The writer explains the imitation of English orthography with two impulses: 1) the colonial desire to "pass as English" and 2) the American publishers' desire to find a workable spelling compromise between the two countries. Before copyright laws and the treaty between America and England, the British feared an infiltration of American-printed books and periodicals and the subsequent "corruption of English spelling." The fear was assuaged, however, as the English publishers held to a conservatism and forced Americans to compromise.
The challenges of developing their own orthography and imitating their English counterparts are apparent in Mencken's examples. For instance, the.....
This is a free excerpt of 104 words. This section contains 206 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.
