chip@dartvax.UUCP (Brig Elliott) (08/04/84)
Any English-speakers who want to browse through a fascinating book on American English (its history, development, etymologies, and differences from British English) should read: The American Language (H. L. Mencken) and its various supplemental volumes. It's fat, answers lots of questions, brings up words you haven't ever heard of--and is vastly amusing. Usenet flames are mild as milk compared to Mencken's. (As a final aside, it strikes me as surprising that the English are displeased with American English. The British isles have a much larger range of English than we, and many of the dialects are more peculiar. And modern BBC ("King's") English is a fairly new invention, not a great high holy bit of history. But I am being too dignified. Surely some Australian reader will give us a bit of invective...?) Brig Elliott ..dartvax!chip