The Mother Tongue (40 page)

Wakelin, Martyn.
The Archaeology of English.
London: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1988.

Watzlawick, Paul.
How Real Is Real?: Communication, Disinformation, Confusion.
London: Souvenir Press, 1983.

Wilson, P. G.
German Grammar.
London: English Universities Press, 1962.

Wolff, Diane.
Chinese for Beginners.
New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1974.

Wood, Frederick T.
Current English Usage,
revised by R. H. and L. M. Flavell. London: Macmillan Press, 1981.

Wrenn, C. L.
A Study of Old English Literature.
London: George G. Harrap & Co., 1967.

Index

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Aby-sel-pha
(Dilworth), 169

Académie Française, 150, 166, 168

accents.
See
dialects

acronyms, 10

acrostics, 255–56

Adams, J. N., 240

Adams, John, 150

Adams, John Quincy, 150, 191

Addison, Joseph, 155

adjectives, 48, 59, 64, 76, 147

adverbs, 64, 157

affixes, 84, 85, 155

African languages, 21, 123–24

Afrikaans, 21

Agincourt, Battle of, 56

Ainu, 15–16

Aitchison, Jean, 101, 163–64

Albanian, 25, 77

Alcuin of York, 49

Alfred the Great, king of England, 56, 96–97

alphabet(s)

alternatives to, 126–30

Anglo-Saxon, 133

Cyrillic, 34

evolution of, 126–27, 133

Greek, 254

Oriental, 128–29

phonetic, 90, 119

phonographic, 140

Roman, 133

runic, 44, 133

syllabic, 128–29

Western, 34, 126–27

American Academy of

Language and Belles Lettres, 150, 151

American Dialect Society, 106

American dialects

black, 111, 123–25

British dialects vs., 102–3, 106–7, 184

broad vs. flat
a
sound in, 112, 172

Dixie, 109

East Coast, 93, 109, 111–13, 187

ethnic, 111, 114, 122–24, 186–87

“hillbillys,” 187

hypercorrection of foreign accents in, 114

impact of social isolation on, 108–9, 123–24, 185–88

main eastern divisions of, 107–13

Midland, 107, 111, 186

New England, 43, 107, 109, 111, 112, 114, 187

New York City, 111–12, 113

Northern, 107–13, 184, 185

relative uniformity of, 186–87

residual British traces in, 43, 99, 104–6, 111–12, 183, 187–90

Southern, 107–9, 112, 122–24, 187

suppressed
r
sound in, 113

An American Dictionary of the English Language
(Webster), 170

American English

Australian English vs., 117

British adoption of, 189–95

British English vs..
See
British English

diction and, 92–93

efforts at reform and improvement of, 150, 152, 191–92

impact of foreign languages on, 177–97, 269–72

national concerns about, 269–74

new words coined, 77–78, 180–84, 189–92

perceived inferior status of, 190–94

varieties of.
See
American dialects

The American Heritage Dictionary,
90, 130, 158, 162

The American Language
(Mencken), 274

American Philological Association, 141

American Revolution, 103, 150, 183

The American Spelling Book
(Webster), 170

American Talk: The Words and Ways of American Dialects
(Hendrickson), 109, 111, 124

American Way,
250

Amerind, 16, 76

Amherst College, 172

Amish, 185–86

amphibology, 264

anagrams, 127, 252, 255, 256, 258

The Anatomy of Swearing
(Montague), 240

Angles, 42–44, 96, 229

An Anglo-American Interpreter
(Horwill), 195

Anglo-Norman, 51–56, 74, 76, 133–34

Anglo-Saxons, 44–53, 151

language of, 44, 47, 52–53, 57, 75, 77, 83, 133–34, 155, 169, 241

literacy achieved by, 133

pagan and primitive culture of, 44, 46

aphesis, 92

apocope, 92

apostrophes, 148

Armenian, 25, 77, 270

Arthur, King, 46

articles, 10, 30, 48, 63

Atlanta Constitution,
124

Atlantic,
254

Augarde, Tony, 254–55

Augustine, Saint, 47

Austen, Jane, 81

Australian English, 92, 115–16, 121, 274

Ayto, J., 165

Babbitt
(Lewis), 195

Bacon, Francis, 66, 191, 256

Baddeley, Alan, 163

Bailey, Nathaniel, 167

Balfour, Arthur, 140
n

Barber, C. L., 53, 63

Barnett, Lincoln, 55, 56, 99, 130, 161, 202, 273

Bartlett, John Russell, 185

Basic English, 213–14

Basque, 15, 16, 37, 74

Baugh, Albert C., 46, 53, 54, 66, 74, 85, 138, 151, 161, 168, 192, 211

BBC, 190, 202, 220

BBC Advisory Committee on Spoken English, 190

Bede, 32, 46, 48, 49, 56, 97

Behan, Brendan, 41

Belgium, 3, 35–36, 207, 270

Bell Telephone Laboratories, 91

Bellow, Saul, 270

Bentham, Jeremy, 79, 192

Beowulf,
43, 57

Bernstein, Theodore M., 133, 152,

157

Bible, 61, 137, 161, 170–72

translations of, 178, 192, 213

Bickerton, Derek, 20–22

bilingualism, 3, 31–32, 34–41, 269–70

Bill 101 (Canada), 36

Bleak House
(Dickens), 81

Bonhours, Dominique, 159

Boontling, 264

Bopp, Franz, 23

Bord na Gaelige, 41

Boston Morning Post,
182

Bougalie, 123

Bowdler, Thomas, 246

Breton, 37, 39

British dialects, 117–22

American dialects vs., 43, 99, 104–6, 111–12, 184, 187–90

class distinctions in, 112, 118–20

East Midlands, 57–59, 60

London, 57–59, 60, 62, 92, 98, 118, 119–20, 187–88, 267

northern vs. southern, 43, 50, 57–58, 60, 63

study of, 119–20

varieties of, 43, 57–59, 106–7, 117–22, 134

British English, American English vs.

dialectic differences in, 43, 99, 104–6, 111–12, 183, 187–90

pronunciation differences in, 171–72, 188

spelling differences in, 100, 143, 170–72, 175–76, 194

swearing differences in, 250–51

usage differences in, 2, 66, 81, 86, 103, 155, 170–72, 184, 187–97, 246–47, 251, 274–75

British Isles, 46, 47, 58, 185

Brittany, 26, 46

Browning, Robert, 73–74

Bruce-Gardyne, Jock, 156

Bryant, William Cullen, 192

Burchfield, Robert, 2, 103, 274–75

works of, 9, 52
n
, 78, 83, 130, 148, 149, 183

Burger brothers, 264

Burnley, David, 59

Burns, Robert, 122

Bush, George, 152, 273

Butts, Alfred, 254

Cable, Thomas, 46, 53, 54, 66, 74, 85, 138, 151, 161, 168, 192, 211

Caedmon, 48

Caesar, Gaius Julius, 142

Cajun, 123–24, 187

Cambridge University, 58, 213, 219, 228

Canada, 16, 36–37, 117, 202, 270

The Canterbury Tales
(Chaucer), 56, 58, 61, 243

Canute, king of England, 52

Cape Breton Island, 26

capitalization, 158, 260

Cardenio
(Shakespeare), 65

Carlyle, Thomas, 79

Carnegie, Andrew, 141–42

Carroll, Lewis, 256

Carter, Jimmy, 152, 216

case forms, 29, 47

Cassidy, Frederic, 110

catachresis, 80–83

Catalan, 26, 37

cave paintings, 12, 13, 15

Cawdrey, Robert, 135

Caxton, William, 58, 59, 98, 137, 138

Ceausescu, Nicolae, 37

cedillas, 131

Celtic, 23, 26, 46, 51, 54, 121.
See also
Gaelic

Celts, 26, 42–46, 51

decline and dispersion of, 46, 54

Roman relations with, 44–45

sophisticated civilization of, 44–45

tribal vs. national character of, 26, 45

Census Bureau, U.S., 269

Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor, 27, 48–49

Charles II, king of England, 221

Charles, prince of Wales, 38, 119

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 55–56, 65, 81, 133, 138

language of, 58–62, 96–98, 138, 243

Cheers,
276

Chicago Tribune,
142

Chinese, 3, 16, 21

dialects of, 7, 89–90, 128, 201

writing of, 126–28, 140

Choctaw, 182

Chomsky, Noam, 18

Christianity, 47

Church of England, 47

Ciardi, John, 159

Cicero, 27, 226

circumflexes, 131

Civil War, U.S., 124, 175

Civilisation
(Clark), 49

Claiborne, Robert, 117, 148

Clark, Kenneth, 49

clerihews, 256, 261

Cockney, 119, 266, 276

Cody, Buffalo Bill, 234

cognates, 16, 24

coins, 44

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 79, 155, 190

colloquialisms, 63, 78, 100

Columbus, Christopher, 32

Commissariat Général de la Langue Française, 206

Commission de Surveillance de la Langue Française, 36

Commission on Terminology, 206

Common Market, 39

A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language
(Webster), 170

computers, 2, 129, 164–65, 214–15

Concise Oxford Dictionary,
249

The Concise Scots Dictionary,
122

Condell, Henry, 65

Confucius, 128

Congress, U.S., 140, 150, 217

consonants, 32, 54, 90, 93, 131

Constitution, U.S., 184, 269

Cooke, Alistair, 270

Copperud, Roy H., 157

Cornish, 41

Cornwall, 43

Council for Basic Education, 272

Cousins, Norman, 270

Cowper, William, 100–101

Cree, 63

creole languages, 20–22, 32, 200

Cro-Magnon people, 13–15

Crockett, Davy, 77

Cromwell, Oliver, 102, 136, 221

crossword puzzles, 127, 250, 252–54, 256

cryptograms, 256

Crystal, David, 55, 132, 135

curse tablets, 45

Cymbeline
(Shakespeare), 80

Cynewulf, 255

Cyrillic alphabet, 34

Daily Mail
(London), 275–76

Danelaw, 50

Danes, 49–50, 229

Danish, 5, 211, 215

Dante Alighieri, 27

Darwin, Charles, 140

Davenport, John, 93

Day, John, 136

de Quincey, Thomas, 154

De Recta et Emendata Linguae Anglicae Scriptione Dialogus
(Smith), 149

Dean, Roy, 252

declensions, 48, 54

Defoe, Daniel, 150, 155

Des Moines Register,
273

Dhimotiki, 35

diacritical marks, 131

dialects, 25–26, 28, 57–59

distinguishing features of, 106–7

ethnic, 111, 114–15, 122–24, 186–87

occupational, 115

placement and identification through, 107–13, 115, 117–18

political and social ramifications of, 113, 116, 118–20

religious significance of, 115

as separate languages, 121

spelling reflected in, 131–34, 139, 144, 167–68

study of, 106–12, 119–20

written, 106, 119

See also specific dialects

Diary in America
(Marryat), 246

Dickens, Charles, 79, 81, 155, 262

diction, 92–96

dictionaries, 160–76, 253, 256

definitions in, 160–65, 167–68

distinctions lacking in, 90, 146, 157–58, 164

early examples of, 135, 166–76

French, 150

function of, 157–58, 173

history and development of, 166–76

mistakes in, 72, 147–48, 158

quotations and illustrations in, 168

revision and updating of, 160, 173, 175

spelling in, 70–71, 147–48, 170–71

terms ordinarily excluded from, 160–61, 173, 246, 249

unabridged, 158, 165–66

vocabulary size in, 4, 160, 165, 166–67, 168, 172, 173–74, 175–76

See also specific dictionaries

Dictionary of American Regional English
(DARE), 110–11

Dictionary of the English Language
(Johnson), 168

A Dictionary of Modern English Usage,
147, 194, 274

Diller, K. C., 163–64

Dilworth, Thomas, 169

diphthongs, 90, 112

Disraeli, Benjamin, 264

Dissertations on the English Language
(Webster), 169–70

Dodsley, Robert, 166

Dohan, Mary Helen, 79, 178

Domei news agency, 209

Domesday Book, 98, 133, 223

Dos, Don'ts and Maybes of English Usage
(Bernstein), 133

double negatives, 21

Dravidian languages, 15

Dryden, John, 149

Duff brothers, 264

Dunbar, William, 241

Dutch, 10, 25, 35–36, 76, 86, 177–78, 215, 275

EastEnders,
276

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People
(Bede), 46

Echo
(London), 263

Eckerson, L. D., 163

Ecole Centrale de Paris, 207

Economist,
20, 33, 39, 201, 203

Education Digest,
270

Education for Economic Security Act, 217

Edward the Confessor, king of England, 52