A History of English Language

A history of the english language 344
be recognized on this side of the Atlantic. John Witherspoon, whose papers on the
English language in the Pennsylvania Journal for 1781 have already been mentioned,
believed it probable that American English would not follow the course of Scots and
become a provincial dialect. “Being entirely separated from Britain,” he says, “we shall
find some centre or standard of our own, and not be subject to the inhabitants of that
island, either in receiving new ways of speaking or rejecting the old.” That others were
thinking along the same lines and were unwilling that this standard should be left to
chance is evident from a communication published in January 1774 in the Royal
American Magazine. The writer signs himself “An American” and gives evidence of his
patriotic fervor by venturing the opinion that although English has been greatly improved
in Britain within the last century, “its highest perfection, with every other branch of
human knowledge, is perhaps reserved for this Land of light and freedom.” He proposes
the formation of something like an academy in this country:
I beg leave to propose a plan for perfecting the English language in
America, thro’ every future period of its existence; viz. That a society, for
this purpose should be formed, consisting of members in each university
and seminary, who shall be stiled, Fellows ofthe American Society of
Language: That the society, when established, from time to time elect
new members, & thereby be made perpetual. And that the society
annually publish some observations upon the language and from year to
year, correct, enrich and refine it, until perfection stops their progress and
ends their labour.
I conceive that such a society might easily be established, and that
great advantages would thereby accrue to science, and consequently
America would make swifter advances to the summit of learning. It is
perhaps impossible for us to form an idea of the perfection, the beauty, the
grandeur, & sublimity, to which our language may arrive in the progress
of time, passing through the improving tongues of our rising posterity;
whose aspiring minds, fired by our example, and ardour for glory, may far
surpass all the sons of science who have shone in past ages, & may light
up the world with new ideas bright as the sun. 15
Whether the author of this proposal was John Adams, a future president of the United
States, is not certain. His name has sometimes been mentioned in connection with it
because a few years later he made a somewhat similar suggestion in a letter to the
president of Congress, written from Amsterdam, September 5, 1780. After directing
attention to the importance of “eloquence and language” in a republic and citing the
example of France, Spain, and Italy in forming academies for the improvement of their
languages, he continues:
15
First republished by Albert Matthews in Trans. of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, XIV,
263–64. It is reprinted in M.M.Mathews, The Beginnings of American English (Chicago, 1931), pp.
40–41.