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It should not be surprising that a new, less formal, easier-to-use version of English is rapidly taking shape with a character of its own. Among the names suggested for it, the best appears to be Amglish, since it is clearly an American version of English.

When Sarah popped up with refudiate, she—like countless lesser-knowns—was simply doing her bit to help the natural language process work its way. It was her explosive genius for mixing and matching words that captivated the public. Perhaps her most masterful coinage came on March 29, 2011, in the early phase of U.S. involvement in the Libyan uprising, when she was asked to assess the nation’s role by Greta Van Susteren on Fox TV: “I too am not knowing. Do we use the term intervention, do we use war, do we use squirmish?”

No word, accidental or not, could better describe the American role after strongman Muammar Qaddafi refused to quit and the United States began efforts to unseat him without widening the conflict into a full-fledged war. Weren’t many Americans squirming to find the right word to describe the situation?

COMMON SPEECH PATTERNS

It’s not only Palin’s uncanny ability to burst forth with the perfect new word but her concomitant ability to level with the average person by speaking in a natural, informal manner. She was in clover with Van Susteren, who has some similar language patterns.

For example, on the same show six days earlier, Van Susteren had asked her, “What do—what, in your opinion, is, in general, not necessarily just here, but the role of the military? Is—I mean, what—what is the role of the military?”

To which Palin replied: “Well, the UN obviously wants this—the role to be of our military just a humanitarian effort per the UN resolution that America has been a part of, and that’s why we are engaged in enacting the no-fly zone. However, again, with Qaddafi having the blood of innocent Americans on his hands—and we have an opportunity to say, OK, finally we have—you’re going to be held accountable. You’re going to be gone.”

Disjointed syntax like this, of course, is not unusual for ordinary conversations. But we used to expect leading figures and media types to use less fractured language on the public record. No longer. John McWhorter, a language specialist at the New Republic, saw a major change occurring when he wrote that “having trouble rubbing a noun and a verb together is not considered a mark against one as a figure of political authority.”2

WHAT IS AMGLISH?

It’s informal American English, the first truly international tongue, the lingua franca for communicating between countries with native languages other than English.

It’s also a tossed salad of new words, slang terms, tech talk, song lyrics, black talk, Valley girlisms, hippie speak, and hip-hop terms.

It’s what some call nonstandard English, accidental words, “new” clichés, spoonerisms, malapropisms, misspellings, mispronunciations, and selective grammar.

It’s acronyms, bureaucratese, Internet slang, tech talk, e-mailese, texting, instant messages, emoticons, and words mixed with numbers.

It’s Bawlmorese, Bostonian, Brooklynese, Cajun, Chinook, Joysey, Looziana, Midwestern, Ozark, Philly talk, Texsun, WestVA, and other regional dialects.

And it’s Arablish, Chinglish, Konglish, Spanglish, and dozens of other international mixtures called “lishes.”

It should be clear to everyone by now: American English is rapidly changing into something much less formal when national leaders are catching the wave. It is pure Amglish. And it’s bipartisan. All prominent politicians have misused their native language in one way or another. Vice President Biden has become famous for his “bloopers,” one of which was his claim during the 2008 campaign that “the number one job facing the middle class [is] . . . a three-letter word: J-O-B-S.” President Obama is also not immune to language slipups, as this chapter will make clear.

WHO SPEAKS AMGLISH?

All Americans speak Amglish whenever they depart—knowingly