334 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



adopted different terms for the same object. This proves, in the first 

 place, the independence of the two great English-speaking nations even 

 in the matter of language, and, in the second place, the wide-reaching 

 influence of French as the recognized official and diplomatic language 

 during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. 



In addition to these two distinct classes of Americanisms there is 

 a third class composed of phrases and expressions which have not yet 

 attained to the dignity of universal currency throughout the entire 

 country. These are rather provincialisms which are peculiar to cer- 

 tain localities. This class, therefore, does not command the importance 

 which the first two classes already considered do. In a heterogeneous 

 population like ours, made up of people from every nationality under 

 heaven, it is quite natural that in certain localities there should exist 

 some eccentricities of speech, some departures from the received stand- 

 ard — in a word, some provincialisms. It need hardly be recalled that 

 parts of our vast country were settled by other nations than the Eng- 

 lish, as, for instance, New York by the Dutch and Louisiana by the 

 French, to mention two specific cases bearing on the point in question. 

 The people of these respective states, when they were incorporated into 

 the union, of course, did not immediately forsake their native modes 

 of speech and inherited vocabulary for pure, unadulterated Saxon. 

 "When the vast southwest territory was made a part of the United 

 States, the people in that quarter of the land spoke a lingo which had 

 a decided foreign complexion. What more natural, then, than that in 

 the speech of that portion of our land there should exist traces of this 

 old foreign element ? Assuredly it would have been the height of arti- 

 ficiality and an unprecedented proceeding for the French element of 

 New Orleans, when they became citizens of the United States, to have 

 renounced their native French names for such natural objects as 

 ' bayou/ ' levee ' and the like, in order to adopt pure Saxon terms. 

 Likewise, it was not to be expected that the Spanish settlers in the 

 western section of our country, specifically California, should abandon 

 such native terms as ' canon ' and ' ranch ' and so on, for the corre- 

 sponding names of genuine English origin. Thus it happens that 

 there is a pronounced foreign flavor, or at least a slight tang, in the 

 eccentricities of speech heard in certain localities of the United States. 

 But these are mere provincialisms and do not impair the quality of our 

 standard speech, which is English to the very core. 



However, it was inevitable that the English language in America 

 should have received an influx of foreign words on American soil. But 

 our speech possesses a marvelous capacity for assimilating non-Saxon 

 elements from whatever source. Hence the various foreign elements, 

 such as Indian, Dutch, French and Spanish, to mention only the chief 

 importations, have all been absorbed without any appreciable altera- 



