26. American Language from Webster to Mencken

In this lecture, we discuss the development of the American language throughout the 19 th and early 20 th centuries. Two important figures stand at the poles of this story: Noah Webster and H. L. Mencken. Both concerned themselves with recording and assessing the state of American English. Both were deeply involved in lexicographical projects. And both set the tone, for their respective periods, for the ways in which the American language was viewed and written about. This lecture looks closely at Webster’s American Dictionary in the light of our concern with the practice of lexicography and the history of attitudes toward language change. We will also examine the ways in which Mencken drew on this body of earlier 19 th -century material to fashion his own history of American English. Both writers offer us great information on how the language was spoken and written. They also offer us great narratives about that language—narratives that still affect our attitudes today.