The Story of English

Chapter 07
Dr. David F. Maas
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 1. Identify some early Americanisms which
were hated by British Victorians. 251:01
 Antagonize and placate were both hated
by British Victorians.
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 2. How did the British magazine Punch
characterize American dialect as reflected
in the speech of the ambassador. 252:02
 I never so clearly appreciated the power of
the unhesitating orotundity of the Yankess
speech, as in listening- after an hour or
two of hum-ha of tongue-tied British men-
to the long wash of our ambassador’s
sonority.’
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 3. Identify some words which Thomas
Jefferson coined.253:06
 Belittle
 Cent
 Dollar
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 4. Describe some of the spelling reforms
which Franklin argued for.254:07
 Published A Scheme for a New Alphabet
and a Reformed Mode of Spelling.
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 5. What were some of the alternatives to
the English language proposed in the
1780’s? 254: 09
 Hebrew
 French
 Greek
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 6. What old institution originally proposed
by Jonathan Swift did John Adams attempt
to introduce to America? 256:12
 He suggested that a United States
Academy would provide for the study of all
languages in the Union, while promoting
American English as a public institution.
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 7. What was Noah Webster’s avowed
purpose in his American Speller? 258:15
 It was Webster’s intention, as he put it, ‘to
introduce uniformity and accuracy of
pronunciation into common schools.’
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 8. What analogy did Webster use from the
European Languages to advocate the
separation of British and American
English? 258:17
 Separation of American English from its
parent.
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 9. Explain how Noah Webster put
emphasis back on the syllable. 252: 19
 Fore-head instead of ‘forrid’
 American speech is still more measured
than English.
 The distinctive pattern of American
speech, the due emphasis given to each
syllable in a word can, in part be attributed
to Webster’s influence.
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 10. Identify two ways in which Noah Webster’s
influence differentiated American and British
dialects. 261:22
 In America, while there are provincial and state
peculiarities, in tone, and even in the
pronunciation and use of certain words, there is
no patois. An American may distinguish between
the Georgian and the New Englandman, but you
[his British audience] will not.
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 11. Why, according to novelist James
Fennimore Cooper, has the leveling of
accent taken place? 261:22
 The flood of immigrants arriving in the
USA from Europe.
 Immigration alone would produce a large
proportion of this change.
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 12. How did the Victorian novelist Marryat
characterize American speech?261:23
 The Americans dwell upon their words
when they speak- a custom arising, I
presume, from their cautious, calculating
habits;
 And they have always more or less of a
nasal twang.
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 13. Explain the origins of Canadian
English. 262: 24
 Loyalists who backed the British were
driven into exile.
 Majority fled north to Canada, and settled
in the part that is now Ontario.
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 14. Explain how Canadian English differs
from American English. 263:29
 Tap, braces, and porridge instead of:
 Faucet, suspenders, and oatmeal
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 15. Identify some Canadian idioms. 264-
265: 32
 Use of ‘eh’
 I’m walking down the street, eh?
 Kerosene, face-off, and blue-line have
Canadian origins
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 16. Where did the “ou” diphthong rhyming
with boat originate in Canadian speech?
267: 35
 A characteristic of pronunciation that can
be traced to Pennsylvania: the merger of
the two vowels in words like cot and
caught, don and dawn, offal and awful.
 When Canadians pronounce these word-
pairs they sound identical.
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 17. What word –pairs sound identical in
Canadian English? 247: 33
 the merger of the two vowels in words like
cot and caught, don and dawn, offal and
awful.
 When Canadians pronounce these word-
pairs they sound identical.
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 18. Why does Canadian English lack the
roustabout adventurousness of American
English ?267:36
 Because its character owes so much to
the people who settled there after the
American Revolution, called ‘Loyalists’ by
the British and ‘Tories’
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 19. Explain the changing connotations of
the expression “ go west.” 268:38
 Gone west- refer to someone who has
deserted his job, usually in search for a
better life.
 Hollywood Cowboys restored to original
Elizabethan sense of ‘to die.’
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 20. Explain the origin of the word
Mississippi? 269:40
 Chippewa Indian:
 Mici sibi ( big river)
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 21. What water transportation terms
derived from commerce on the Mississippi
River? 269:41
 Letting off steam
 Riffraff
 High falutin
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 22. Explain the origin of the pervasive
American expression, “you bet.” 270:43
 Came from the gambling game- poker.
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 23. Identify some terms introduced by
riverboat gambling into American
speech.270:44
 Bluff
 New deal
 Raw deal
 Pass the buck
 The buck stops here
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 24. Identify some frontier drink terms
which entered into the mainstream
vocabulary. 271:45,46
 Whiskey
 Bartenders
 Cocktail
 Bootleg
 Saloon
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 25. Identify some expressions which led H.
L. Mencken to characterize the “Gothic
age of American drinking as of American
word-making. 271:48
 Discombobulate
 Hornswoggle
 Lallapalooza
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 26. How do the phrases “eager beaver,”
“work like a beaver,” and “bucks” reflect
the frontier experience? 272:49
 A man’s worth reckoned in ‘buckskins”- or
bucks
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 27. Explain the origin of the phrase “see
the elephant.” 273:52.
 Farmer , taking a load of goods to town,
said he wanted to go to the fair to “see the
elephant”
 When horses see elephant rear up and
overturn wagon
 Seeing elephant means to meet a
misfortune.
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 28. Identify some gold rush words which
have become a part of daily
speech.274:53
 Bonanza- s Spanish word meaning fair
weather
 Pan out –gold panned in a river
 Strike it rich, big strike, lucky strike
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 29. Explore the origin of the word
“cowboy.” 274:55
 First appeared in present sense in 1877
 1725 British meaning ‘ a boy who tends
cattle.’
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 30. Explain the legend of the cowboys and
the origin of the expression “the real Mc
Coy.” 274:53
 Joseph Mc Coy bought a town- a railhead
 Offered $40a head (10 times the going
rate)
 Shipped more than 2 miilion back to the
east.
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 31. Illustrate the Spanish influence on
frontier American English. 275:57
 Rodeo
 Stampede estampeda
 Poncho
 Ranch
 Mustang
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 32.Identify some cowboy expressions
which have infiltrated the English
language. 275:57
 Wrangler
 Cattle barrons
 Cowpoke
 Bronco buster
 Maverick
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 33. Identify jargon words from the railroad
which enriched American English
vocabulary. 276:58
 Hot under the collar
 Bite the dust
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 34. Identify similarities in Abraham Lincoln
and Mark Twain. 279:63,64
 Both Twain and Lincoln were
Midwesterners.
 Both use direct simplicity
 Both brought up on frontier
 Both shared its ethos and beliefs
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 35. Identify some slang phrases which
Mark Twain immortalized in his literature.
282:66
 Dead broke
 Take it easy
 To get even
 Gilt-edged
 Close call
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 36. How was Mark Twain’s experience
different from his predecessors Thoreau,
Emerson, and Hawthorne? 282:68
 Samuel Clemens had an enormously wide
experience of American life, of all classes
of people in all kinds of occupation and
mood.
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 37. Identify some of the dialects which
twain mimicked in Huckleberry Finn?
283:70
 Missouri Negro
 Backwoods Southwestern dialect
 ‘Pike County’ dialect
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 38. How did Ralph Waldo Emerson
characterize Whitman’s Leaves of
Grass? 284:72
 I am not blind. I find it the most
extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that
America has yet contributed.
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 39. How did Whitman characterize the
English language? 285:73
 The English language befriends the grand
American expression--- it is brawny
enough and limber and full enough.
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 40. Why did Central European Jews call
England the “mother country?” 286:75
 ‘Because most of us came from Poland or
Italy.’
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 41. Explain the circumstances which gave
rise to the word “Immigrant.” 286:76
 American word coined in 1789 to refine
emigrant (previously used in a double
sense.)
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 42. Explain how New York City could be
characterized as an ethnic Mosaic. 286:76
 Liverwurst from Germany
 Borscht from Russia
 Guiness from Ireland
 Goulash from Hungary
 Lasagne from Italy
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 43. Identify some German expressions
which have infiltrated into the American
vocabulary. 287:78
 Bummer loafer
 Spiel play
 Lass es sein let it be
 kindergarten
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 44. Identify some name changes that
resulted from anti-American sentiment.
288:79
 Knobbel noble
 Shoens shane
 Frankfurters hot dogs
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 45. What is the etymology for the abusive
nickname WOP? 288:80
 WOP ( Without Passport)
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 46. Identify some Italian food words which have
infiltrated the English language. 288:80.
 Pizza
 Spaghetti
 Lasagne
 Espresso
 Pasta
 Broccoli
 Zucchini
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 47. Which work did Twain describe as the
“turning point in my life?”
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 48. Identify Mafia terms which have infiltrated
the English language. 288: 81
 Godfather
 Hoodlum
 Racketeer
 Rough house
 Hatchet man
 Loan shark
 Hot seat
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 49. How did some of the new immigrants
achieve a new identity at the hands of ill-
educated immigration officials? 289:82
 Ouspenska Spensky
 Nisnyevich Nissen
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 50. Identify some Yiddish words that
entered the English vocabulary thanks to
entertainment figures. 289:83
 Chutzpah raw nerve
 Schlep to drag, pull
 Gonef thief
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 51. Identify some Yiddish phrases or
expressions which came into the
vocabulary from Vaudeville. 290: 84
 I need it like a hole in the head
 Smart he isn’t
 I should worry
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 52. Identify some vocabulary items which
the war experience gave to the language.
291:87
 Bomb-proof
 Barrage
 Shell shock
 Convoy
 Dud
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 53. Compare British and American
vocabulary items.291:87
 Elevator- lift
 Garbage – rubbish
 Wrench- spanner
 Vacation- holiday
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 54. What contribution did H. L. Mencken
make with his book The American
Language? 292:90
 He was, like the first American
revolutionaries, anxious to beat the drum
of the language of which he was such a
master
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 55. Why did H.L. Mencken suggest that
American English “is much more honestly
English?” 292:90
 It still shows all the characteristics that
marked the common tongue in the days of
Elizabeth I