Chapter 3.4 Summary

The language of the Americans took influence from the Algonquins, Mencken writes. The Americans not only used the Indians' language for the many new objects, he says, but borrowed their methods for naming, for using proper nouns. The contact with other cultures brought more language. The Americans who were in close proximity to the French in Louisiana and along the Canadian border, the people in Texas, and those further West borrowed words like bayou, picayune, levee, chute, butte, lariat, lasso, ranch, loco (weed), mustang, sombrero, desperado, poncho, and broncho. As well, he says, the Spanish influence is in words such as ante, frijole, tamale, and tomato.

Mencken reports that at the same time language was diversifying immigration was expanding. Germans, Irish Catholics, and Chinese were coming to America, bringing new languages with them. The Irish were speaking "the English of Cromwell's time"; the...