American Language Supplement 2 (78 page)
Read American Language Supplement 2 Online
Authors: H.L. Mencken
461. [The only inflections of the noun remaining in English are those for number and for the genitive, so it is in these two regions that the few variations to be noted in vulgar American occur.] False singulars, made by back formation, are numerous,
e.g., Chinee, Portugee, Japanee, trapee, specie, tactic
and
measle
, nor are they confined to the untutored.
2
I have encountered
statistic
in a solemn pronunciamento by a Catholic dignitary,
3
in an uplifting editorial in a literary weekly,
4
in a paper in a leading scientific journal,
5
in a report of a committee of the American Society of Newspaper Editors,
6
and in the annual report of the Librarian of Congress.
7
The NED, which marks it “rare,” presents only a few examples, the first of which, dated 1796, comes from an American book. Several correspondents report that they have heard
len
(from
lens
) and even encountered it in print.
8
Pant
(from
pants
) was reported in the Middle West in
American Speech
in 1926,
1
and has since been found in Tennessee and South Carolina.
2
I have myself had the felicity to discover
homo sapien
in the Baltimore
Sun
.
3
When the English
innings
became
inning
in the United States is uncertain. The DAE shows that
innings
was used by Henry Chadwick in his pioneer treatise on baseball in 1868,
4
but that
Outing
was using the singular form in 1886. The NED says that in Great Britain the term is “always in the plural form
innings
, whether in singular or plural sense.” It is traced as a cricket term to 1746. Partridge says that
to have a good innings
, meaning to be lucky, especially in money matters, has been in use in England since
c
. 1860, and in the sense of to live a long time since
c
. 1870, and that
to have a long innings
, in the latter sense, has been used since
c
. 1860.
5
A number of botanical terms ending in -
s, e.g., coleus
and
gladiolus
, are commonly assumed to be plurals in both England and the United States, and in consequence false singular forms are in use. The NED traces
gladiole
to
c
. 1420. Noah Webster noted in 1789
6
that the Americans of that time mistook
chaise
(borrowed from the French about 1700) for a plural, and so developed a singular form,
shay
, which the DAE traces to 1717. It did not appear in England until later.
Rather curiously, many obviously plural forms are used in the singular without change,
e.g., stockyards, grounds
and (golf)
links
. On the level of the common speech Dr. Louise Pound adds
ways
, as in “He walked a
ways
with her” and “The house is some
ways off
,” and
suds
, as in a thick
suds
.
7
She adds that she has also heard
corp
, from
corpse
, and
appendic
, from
appendix
. She says:
At first glance the plural-singulars first cited associate themselves vaguely with the adverbial -
s
, genitive in origin, which appears in
always, lengthways
,
crossways, sideways
, etc., as though -
s
were transferred from these adverbs to the singulars of the nouns. But though this association might help in the case of
a ways
, the commonest of the expressions – possible for this very reason – and often adverbial in function, it could hardly assist to account for
a thick woods
or for
a picnic grounds
, etc. Perhaps the speakers start with the singular in mind, as the presence of the indefinite article shows, then shift to the plural because the nouns involved are employed so frequently in the plural; note
roadways, crossways, pleasure grounds, playgrounds, woods
(as opposed to
wood
, the cut timber),
links, works, stockyards
, and the like. But, more probably, the plural forms are preceded by the indefinite article because treated as collective, as though to give the general impression of a singular,
e.g., a way
(
s
) made up of ways of different kinds or lengths,
a wood
(
s
) made up of separate trees or group of trees,
a ground
(
s
) made up of lawns, parks, and the like. In other words, the singular collective idea predominates over the grammatical form. Yet this tendency holds for certain expressions only. There is no such psychological confusion in the case of seemingly parallel words: for example,
a groves, a lawns, a parks
do not occur; this because the plurals of these words do not so promptly suggest, logically or through association, the idea of a singular.
I have never encountered any singulars, valid or false, for
scissors, spectacles, clothes, athletics, series
or
obsequies
, but
hoe
from
hose
is reported from the Ozarks
1
and
calv
from
calves
and
hoov
from
hooves
from Nebraska.
2
Aborigine
from
aborigines
, though it is described by the NED as “etymologically as indefensible as
serie
or
indice
,” is traced in American use to 1858, though M. M. Mathews expresses doubt that it is an Americanism.
3
There is an interesting section on such forms in A. Smythe Palmer’s “Folk-Etymology,”
4
a curious and useful work that has fallen into undeserved neglect. He points out, for example, that
Bible
, from the Latin
biblia
, is really a plural form, and it follows that such forms as the
Book
, the
Good Book
and the
Book of Books
, so often used by theologians, are incorrect. Palmer also reminds genealogists that the surname
Janeway
is from
Genoese
and used to be
Januweys
or
Januayes
, and that its present singular form is as questionable as
Chinee
or
Portugee
. Every high-school boy should be aware that
pea
is a false singular from
pease
, but Palmer is on less familiar ground when he points out that the original form of
potato
, from the Haitian
batatas
, was
potatus, potados
or
potatoes
in both numbers, and that
sherry
is a false singular from
sherris
or
seres
(
i.e., Xeres
or
Jerez
, a town in Spain).
The use of
license, cheese, molasses
and
Baptist
as plurals is noted in AL4, p. 462. In the case of
cheese
, a false singular,
chee
, has developed, especially in the Southern mountains.
1
This confusion between singular and plural extends to many words ending in -
s, -ist, -ish, -ex
, and even
-age
. John Gerard, writing in the latter part of the Sixteenth Century,
2
said “
radish
are eaten raw,” and Cotton Mather, in his Diary for 1711, wrote “a number of people of both
sex
.” The surname of Tom
Collins
, inventor of the drink of the same name, was converted into a plural in a rum advertisement in a liquor trade paper in 1944.
3
Baptist
, pronounced
baptizz
, is not only in almost universal use as a plural among the folk of the
Are-You-Saved?
country; it also makes frequent appearances in print.
4
In the same region
cabbage
is also a plural, as Wentworth shows by examples from North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Arkansas. So is
sausage
. So, again, is
tourist
.
5
The late Will Rogers, a master of the common speech, even made one of
business
.
6
I find
enemy
as a plural in an official Army paper
7
and also in the London
Times:
8
perhaps the Army borrowed it from the English.
Wentworth lists many double plurals in the common speech, especially in the South,
e.g., oxens, womens, dices, currantses, lices, folkses, sheeps, childrens, tomatoeses, nestes, postes, geeses, hogses, jeanses
and (
in
)
gredientses
. He also turns up two triple plurals,
feetses
and
menses
(
mens
). Wright shows in his “English Dialect Grammar” that such forms are very common in the English dialects, and that some of them preserve the old -
en
plural ending,
e.g., geesen
and
micen
.
2
Tactic
may really be called accepted. The NED has examples from Edmund Burke, Edward A. Freeman and Mark Pattison. Mr. Arthur D. Jacobs, of Manchester, tells me that it was used habitually by Sir Stafford Cripps in his Popular Front campaign of 1939. It has been used in this country by a writer as generally careful as Oswald Garrison Villard (Strategy of Good Manners,
Negro Digest
, Jan., 1946, p. 21) and appears frequently in the
Congressional Record, e.g
., July 19, 1945, p. 7849, col. 2, and July 26, 1946, p. A4705, col. 2.
3
Catholics and Birth Control, by Monsignor John A. Ryan,
American Mercury
, April, 1944, p. 505.
4
The Library’s Customers, by J. T. W (interich?),
Saturday Review of Literature
, Dec. 22, 1945, p. 16.
5
Heredity of the Agglutinogens M and N of Landsteiner and Levine, by Alexander S. Wiener,
Human Biology
, May, 1935, p. 231.
6
Editor and Publisher
, Dec. 14, 1946, p. 78, col. 3.
7
For the year ended June 30, 1945, p. 37.
8
For example, Miss Jane D. Shenton, of Temple University, and Mr. Barrington S. Havens, of Schenectady, N. Y.
1
May, p. 460: “There is a Kalamazoo
Pant
Company at Kalamazoo, manufacturers of Kazoo trousers.”
2
I am indebted here to Mr. Hayden Siler, of Jellico, Tenn., and Lieut. Col. F. G. Potts, of Mt. Pleasant, S. C.
3
Advertisement of the McKay Foundation, Dec. 27, 1945, p. 9: “Some say it’s fifty or a hundred million years since the first
homo sapien
roamed the plains and hunted in the hills.”
4
The Game of Baseball: How to Learn It, How to Play It, and How to Teach It; New York, p. 41.
5
Paratroop
, by back formation from
paratroops
, has been reported from England (
American Speech
, Dec., 1944, p. 311), but so far as I know it has not come into use in the United States.
6
Dissertations on the English Language, p. 118.
7
Some Plural-Singular Forms,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part I, 1913, pp. 48–50.
1
More Words From the Ozarks, by Vance Randolph,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. V, Part X, 1927, p. 475.
2
Folk-Etymological Singulars, by Wilbur Gaffney,
American Speech
, Dec., 1927, p. 130.
3
The New Element in American English,
American Speech
, April, 1945, p. 106.
4
London, 1882, pp. 592–664.
1
Tennessee Mountains, by H. A. Edson and others,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. I, Part VIII, 1895, p. 376.
2
The Herball, or General Historie of Plants; London, 1597. Quoted in
Encore
, Oct., 1943, p. 492.
3
Beverage Retailer Weekly
, Aug. 28, 1944, p. 9: “Thousands of Marimba
Collins
are being served and enjoyed every single day.”
4
Livermore (Ky.)
Times
, July 30, 1937, p. 1: “
Baptist
Hold Association.” I am indebted here to Mr. Roger C. Hackett.
5
American Speech
, Jan., 1927, p. 217.
6
Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to His President; New York, 1926. Quoted in
Encore
, April, 1944, p. 395. I hope I need not add that Rogers was anything but illiterate himself. I saw him often in the 1925 era and we had many an hilarious palaver over the American vulgate.
7
Special Service Digest
, Oct. 30, 1944, p. 1.
8
Gallantry on Northwest Frontier, Aug. 24, 1938.
“In the dialects [of English],” says Wright, “the comparative suffix -
er
and the superlative -
est
are added to practically all adjectives, polysyllabic as well as monosyllabic.
More
and
most
are as a rule only used to supplement the regular comparisons, as
more beautifuller, more worst
.”
1
He add
s betterer, betterest, bestest, worser, worsest, morer
and
mostest
. Wyld, in his “History of Modern Colloquial English,”
2
recalls Shakespeare’s
most unkindest cut of all
, and traces
badder, more better, more surer, more gladder, more larger, more greater, more stronger, more fresher
,
3
most best, most bitterest, most hardest
and
most nearest
to the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.
4
Jespersen notes that “the natural tendency in colloquial speech is to use the superlative in speaking of two,” and that “this is found very frequently in good authors.” Russell Thomas assembles examples from Mallory, Pope, Boswell, Coleridge, Emerson, Melville and many others.
5
