Americanisms exhibit themselves, not in the use of peculiar words and pronunciations alone, but also in some points of grammar. Thus, to mention a few:

The termination -ity for abstract nouns is preferred in many cases to the English -ness; so that we have, for instance, such words as accountability, instead of accountableness; obtusity for obtuseness, &c. Of a like nature are rendition for rendering, reservation for reserve.

The terminations -er and -est, which indicate the degrees of comparison of adjectives, are often discarded for the adverbs more and most, even before monosyllables, contrary to good English usage. And the possessive relation is often denoted by the preposition of, where the termination -'s would be neater and more idiomatic.

The influence of the French language seems to be visible, not only in the preceding instances, but also in the use of the definite article before the names of diseases; as, the gout, the consumption, the headache, the erysipelas, &c.

It may be owing to the influence of the German language, in which the adverbs are nothing but apocopated adjectives, that the adjectival ending is so often omitted by vulgar speakers; as, "I have got wet bad;" "See that you do it good;" "He'll take cold sure."

On the other hand, it seems owing to the teachings of some priggish pedagogue, who had learned that "adverbs qualify verbs," and knew nothing beyond it, that adverbs are now often employed where idiomatic usage requires an adjective; as, “I feel very badly;" "You look charmingly," &c. So that we may expect soon to hear, "She seems ignorantly;" "He became quite crazily," &c.; and to be unable any longer to make the distinction between "He feels warmly" and "He feels warm." The ladies seem more especially to affect this form of speech, which is more common at the South than at the North; whence it is likely that it originated in a Southern boarding-school. The persons who use it are not aware that it is really the person or thing which is qualified in these cases, and not the action or state of being.

Among the American peculiarities of style, one of the most

remarkable is a tendency to exaggeration. "The use of extravagant terms," says Dr. Lieber, in one of his letters to me on the subject, "is very common. These are often used by deficiently educated persons who edit newspapers, and more frequently by the same class of people when speaking in public. In the South and West, this custom prevails to a greater extent than at the North. This is the finest cow in the State of South Carolina,' observes one. 'The handsomest woman south of the Potomac,' says another. And a man who kept a country school with ten small scholars was said to be making' bushels of money' by it."

This sort of exaggeration frequently assumes the form of what in England is very appropriately termed "fine writing," but which with us is better known as "highfaluten." Thus, a Western critic, speaking of the acting of a Miss Logan, says the way in which she chanted the Marseillaise was "terrible in its intensity," and that the impression made "must create for her a name that will never die." This, however, "does not begin" with Miss Wyatt, whose performances at Springfield, Illinois, are thus described in a criticism in one of the papers of that city:

"Illumined by the lyric muse, she is magnificent. All nerve, all palpitation, her rounded form is the fittest setting for her diamond soul! She has grace which is more than beauty, and distinction which adorns still more than grace. She appears the incarnation of genius! - it struggles within her!-inspiration quivers down her snow-white arms, and trembles on her fingers' ends, passion wrestles in her quivering frame, and shudders through her limbs. Her soul flickers in every accent, and looms up in every pantomime, while serene smiles play about her mouth. Her drapery follows her gestures, her gestures her passions. Every attitude is a model, every pose is a classic statue."

"The very opposite," says Dr. Lieber, "is the case at present in England. There has been no period and no country in which perspicuity, simplicity, and manliness of style are so general as at present in English Reviews; even newspapers, e. g. the "London Spectator," are models of these attributes of a good

style. Monckton Milnes, M. P., told me he had not the least doubt but that the House of Commons of the present day would not stand the eloquence of Fox, Sheridan, or Burke. I asked, 'What would they do?' The members would instantly leave their seats,' was the reply. Mr. Milnes also spoke of several American writers whose style was correct; still, he could always detect some florid expression characteristic of their people."

Before closing these observations on American provincialisms, I should do injustice to previous writers on the same subject, not to speak of their works. The earliest of these, as far as my knowledge extends, is that of Dr. Witherspoon. In a series of essays entitled "The Druid," which appeared originally in a periodical publication in 1761, he devotes numbers 5, 6, and 7 of these essays, about twenty pages in all, to Americanisms, perversions of language in the United States, cant phrases, &c. They were afterwards published in his collected works, in 4 vols. 8vo, Philadelphia, 1801, and may be found in the fourth volume.

The most important work of the kind is that of the late Hon. John Pickering. He began with an article in the "Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," Boston. This was soon after enlarged and published in a separate volume entitled "A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases which have been supposed to be peculiar to the United States of America. To which is prefixed an Essay on the Present State of the English Language in the United States." Boston, 1816. pp. 206. (Containing about 520 words.) This valuable and interesting work received much attention, and in the following year appeared a pamphlet, entitled "A Letter to the Hon. John Pickering, on the Subject of his Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases supposed to be peculiar to the United States." By Noah Webster. Boston, 1817. pp. 69.

8vo.

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In the Transactions of the Albany Institute, 1830, Vol. I., an article entitled "Notes on Mr. Pickering's Vocabulary, &c., with Preliminary Observations." By T. Romeyn Beck. In Mr. Sherwood's Gazetteer of Georgia" is a glossary of words provincial in the Southern States. The latest work on provincialisms, but chiefly of errors in grammar, is "A Grammatical

Corrector, or Vocabulary of the Common Errors of Speech; alphabetically arranged, corrected, and explained for the Use of Schools and Private Individuals." By Seth T. Hurd. 12mo. Philadelphia, 1847.1

Since the publication of the first edition of this work, there have been published two additions of a work entitled "A Collection of College Words and Customs." By B. H. Hall. 12mo. Cambridge. The last edition in 1856. This is a very complete work in its way, and contains many Americanisms which originated at Colleges. An excellent little volume, by Dr. A. L. Elwyn of Philadelphia, entitled "Glossary of Supposed Americanisms," has also appeared. This is a useful work, and shows how many of our supposed Americanisms are really English.

As the charge has been frequently made against us by English critics of perverting our vernacular tongue, and of adding useless words to it, it will not be out of place to state here that, in the belief of the author, the English language is in no part of the world spoken in greater purity by the great mass of the people than in the United States. In making this assertion, he does not depend wholly on his own observation: it has repeatedly been made by intelligent Englishmen who have travelled in the United States, and had an opportunity of judging. On this subject, the author of an English work, entitled the "Backwoods of Canada," has the following judicious remarks:

"With the exception of some few remarkable expressions, and an attempt at introducing fine words, the lower order of Yankees have a decided advantage over our English peasantry in the use of grammatical language: they speak better English

1 In preparing this work, I have examined all the English provincial glossaries, and the principal English dictionaries; which it was necessary to do, in order to know what words and phrases were still provincial in England. Many of the facts in that portion of the Introduction which treats of English dialects have been drawn from similar essays appended to the several glossaries. But I am chiefly indebted to the enlarged Preface to Dr. Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, which presents the best historical analysis extant of the English language; and to the admirable and later work of Professor Latham, "The English Language," London, 1841, which is unquestionably the most valuable work on English philology and grammar which has yet appeared.