Amglish In, Like, Ten Easy Lessons_ A Celebration of the New World Lingo - Arthur E. Rowse [30]
Webster’s activism was largely inspired by Samuel Johnson and the famous dictionary he published in 1755. Johnson was of two minds as well. He vowed to “fix” English by excluding new and bawdy words while publishing off-color ditties such as this one by one Sir John Suckling: “Love is the fart of every heart; it pains a man when ’tis kept close; and others doth offend when ’tis let loose.”
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
The previously mentioned Mark Twain was another brush cutter for early Amglish with his lovable creations, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and his efforts to use the vernacular of black and white boys playing together in the South of the early 1800s. His Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published in 1876, starts out, “You don’t know me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter.” H. L. Mencken called Twain “the first American author of world rank to write genuinely colloquial and native American.”23
Mencken also singled out author Walt Whitman for his “romantic confidence” in the role of “iconoclastic and often uncouth American speechways” in fostering U.S. democracy. He said Whitman’s “central purpose [was] to make war upon the old American subservience to 18th century English pedantry and open the way for the development of a healthy and vigorous autochthonous language in the United States.” Whitman’s love of slang led to a pioneering magazine article entitled “Slang in America.”24
Mencken’s words for Whitman could also describe himself. His mammoth book, The American Language, is a tour de force of the American language’s history. Other trailblazing pioneers of language in the twentieth century include Ring Lardner and his depictions of street and bar talk in New York; Studs Terkel, with his quotes from unsung heroes; Norman Mailer, with his bold-at-the-time obscenities; and Tom Wolfe’s gripping descriptions of affluent society’s seamier side.
The lowercase poet e. e. cummings deserves special mention for his playful spelling and syntax. He caused a stir in the early twentieth century by occasionally signing his name in lower-case letters and deliberately mixing up words, both of which devices were due later to spread into common usage. Among his verbal inventions that didn’t catch on were mud-luscious, puddle-wonderful, and eddieandbill.
JUMPING FOR JUNIE
Then there’s the more recent Junie B. Jones, the controversial character in a series of books from Random House originally aimed at the kindergarten crowd but later upgraded to older ages and expanded into movies, games, and coloring pages. With her informal language, Junie indirectly promotes Amglish—and book sales—with clever misspellings and questionable grammar in phrases like “I hearded that name” and “runned away.”
In other words, she fits into the Amglish world, much to the dismay of many parents who wonder how their offspring can ever learn formal English by reading such material. Other parents swear that their children have been inspired to do more writing and reading than they otherwise would have. They add that the use of the vernacular by Barbara Park, the creator of Junie B., is similar to Mark Twain’s classic use of it in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of the top American classics.
Which set of parents is closer to the truth?
If the question is whether Junie has harmed the ability of young Americans to communicate, the answer seems to be no. One glance at the degree of texting, phoning, and e-mailing by youngsters shows that they have no problem making themselves understood by their peers while greatly enjoying the process.
If Huck caused no serious problems for readers of his day, Junie B.