AMERICAN ENGLISH
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Ervine, in his letter which you published in e recent issue under this heading, cites as evidence that the "literary language" of the two countries is by no meaeS "practically identical," as stated by me, the -fact that Mr. Sinclair Lewis has found it necessary to print a-glossary with
one of his novels. . . • . _
I certainly- never -before knew or heard of any American, author who found it necessary to do this, and I would suggest that the probable explanation is that the novel in question contains much of the language of the lower, uneducated classes. In every country these classes - use a dialect of " -patois " very different from the speech of the well-educated classes, or what may be described as the literary language of the country. I have read quite.a number of books by- American authors and have never come across one that did. not fullY Justify -my assertion'—which Mr._ Ervine describes as-" plata nonsense "—that the literary language of the two countries is prattler:11y (I did not say absolutely) identical.
By the term "literary language " I mean not only the language of books and newspapers but also that used by well- educated people in their correspondence on serious subjects, and also, of course, that of the Law Courts, of Congress and of Diplomacy. Once, in Washington, I heard a judgment delivered in the Supreme Court of the United States in *hich there was not one word which an English judge might not have used. So much for the 'plain nonsense" (to quote Mr. Ervine) of my statement.
R is; of course, true that Americans do not use all English words in exactly the same sense as we do. For instance, they always say " elevator " for lift, " store " for shop, " bill " for currency-note, " lumber " for timber, "depot" for railway-station, " fall " for autumn, to quote a few out of the not very large number of similar cases that might be cited. But this is a comparatively small matter that only slightly affects the identity of the two languages.—I am, Sir, &c.,
F. VENNING.
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