American Language

by H. L. Mencken

  Thus the English words crowd out the Polish in the immigrant’s vocabulary. They are changed so much that sometimes one hardly suspects them of English origin. Every Polish housewife in Baltimore, for instance, buys oszezechy in season — and whether you hear the word spoken or see it written you are surprised to learn that it is the English oyster adopted into Polish-American. The same fate befell tomato, which is merdysy. Only the intelligentsia call crabs raki; the common folk use krebsy. Also, they use steksy and ciapsy for steaks and chops, sasyćki for sausages, leberka for liver pudding, paje for pies, kieksy for cakes, and kiendy for candies.

  In 1930 there were 3,342,198 persons of Polish origin in the United States —1,268,583 born in the territories now included in Poland, 1,781,280 born here of Polish-born parents, and 292,335 born here of mixed parentage. All these, of course, were not Poles; many, and perhaps a good half, were Polish Jews. But the Polish element in the population is still very large. The Polish National Alliance has 350,000 members and assets of $28,000,000, and the Polish Roman Catholic Union has 250,000 members and assets of $13,000,000. There are large Polish colonies in Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit, and in the last-named the population of the enclave of Hamtramck is said to be 80% Polish. In Buffalo the Poles are so thick on the East Side that less than ½ of 1% of the population is non-Polish. The early Polish immigrants set up parochial schools for the purpose of preserving the language as well as the faith, but of late the Catholic bishops have been Americanizing them. The Polish National Church, which separated from the Catholic Church thirty years ago, conducts its services in Polish and teaches the language in its schools. There are seventy-five Polish periodicals in the country, of which fifteen are daily newspapers.114

  4. FINNO-UGRIAN

  a. Finnish

  In 1930, according to the census of that year, there were 142,478 persons of Finnish birth in the United States, 148,532 who had been born here of Finnish parents, and 29,526 of partly Finnish parentage — a total of 320,536. Of these, 124,994 reported that Finnish was their mother-tongue. The Finns are scattered through the country from Massachusetts to the Pacific Coast, with their largest colonies in Michigan and Minnesota. They support twenty-one publications in their ancestral language, including five dailies. That language has been so greatly modified in the United States that Professor Nisonen, of Suomi College, Hancock, Mich., has proposed that it be called Finglish. Says Mr. John E. Rantamaki, editor of the Amerikan Suometar, a tri-weekly published at Hancock:

  Many Finns who don’t actually mix English words into their Finnish speech use forms that are idiomatically more English than Finnish. For example, consider the sentence “Take care of the boy.” In correct Finnish the verb is pidä, but most American Finns use ota, which is a literal translation of take.115

  Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugrian group of languages, along with Hungarian, Lapp, Estonian and a number of minor dialects. It appears to be more closely related to Turkish and Mongolian than to the prevailing languages of Europe. It has fifteen cases, and all of them save the nominative are indicated by adding postpositions to the root. The root itself must always end in a vowel or diphthong. A loan-word, if it ends in a consonant, has a vowel-ending attached to it. Thus house, in the nominative, becomes haussi, from the house (elative) is haussista, and into the house (translative) is haussiksi. Proper names are subjected to the same inflections. Thus, to Kenton is Kentoniin, and from Kenton is Kentonista. The Finnish papers in the United States are full of such curious forms as Ann Arborissa, Kalamazoon and New York Mills’ista. Here is the paradigm of haussi (house), which has generally displaced the correct Finnish talo:

  Case Finglish English

  Nominative haussi house

  Genitive haussin of the house

  Accusative haussi, haussin house

  Essive haussina as a house

  Partitive haussia some of the house

  Translative haussiksi into the house

  Inessive haussissa in the house

  Elative haussista from the house

  Illative haussiin into the house

  Adessive haussilla at the house

  Ablative haussilta away from the house

  Allative haussille toward the house

  Abessive haussitta without a house

  Comitative haussineen (-nensa) with a house

  Instructive haussein with houses116

  Under the influence of English there is some decay of these case-endings, especially in the genitive and the accusative. Even perfectly good Finnish words tend to lose some of their inflections. Here, for example, is the way kirja (book) changes for person, in the genitive case, in Finnish and Finglish:

  Finglish English Finnish

  minun kirja my book minun kirjani

  sinun kirja your book sinun kirjasi

  hänen kirja his book hänen kirjansa

  meidän kirja our book meidän kirjamme

  teidän kirja your book teidän kirjanne

  heidän kirja their book heidän kirjansa

  It will be noted that in Finglish the noun remains invariable: the pronoun alone is felt to be a sufficient indicator of person, as it is in English. The conjugation of the verb is very complicated, involving a great many different endings. Here, for example, is the conjugation, in the indicative mood, of the loan-verb kliinaan (to clean), following precisely that of the proper Finnish verb, puhdistan:

  English Finglish

  Present

  I clean kliinaan

  you clean kliinaat

  he (she) cleans hän117 kliinaa

  we clean kliinaamme

  you clean kliinaatte

  they clean kliinaavat

  Past

  I cleaned kliinasin

  you cleaned kliinasit

  he (she) cleaned kliinasi

  we cleaned kliinasimme

  you cleaned kliinasitte

  they cleaned kliinasivat

  Future

  I shall clean kliinaamme

  you will clean kliinaat

  he will clean kliinaavat

  Present Perfect

  I have cleaned olen kliinannut

  you have cleaned olet kliinannut

  he has cleaned on kliinannut

  we have cleaned olemme kliinannee

  you have cleaned olette kliinanneet

  they have cleaned ovat kliinanneet

  Past Perfect

  I had cleaned olin kliinannut

  you had cleaned olit kliinannut

  he had cleaned oli kliinannut

  we had cleaned olimme kliinanneet

  you had cleaned olitte kliinanneet

  they had cleaned olivat kliinanneet

  Future Perfect

  I shall have cleaned olen kliinannut vast’edes’

  you shall have cleaned olet kliinannut vast’edes’

  he shall have cleaned on kliinannut vast’edes’

  we shall have cleaned olemme kliinannut vast’edes’

  you shall have cleaned olette kliinanneet vast’edes’

  they shall have cleaned ovat kliinanneet vast’edes’

  I Conditional

  I should clean kliinaisin

  you should clean kliinaisit

  he should clean kliinaisi

  we should clean kliinaisimme

  you should clean kliinaisitte

  they should clean kliinaisivat

  II Conditional

  I should have cleaned olisin kliinannut

  you should have cleaned olisit kliinannut

  he should have cleaned olisi kliinannut

  we should have cleaned olisimme kliinanneet

  you should have cleaned olisitte kliinanneet

  they should have cleaned olisivat kliinanneet

  Nouns naturally constitute the majority of the English and American loan-words in Finglish. Finnish has a word of its own for bootlegger, to wit, trokari, but the Finns in the United States prefer puutlekkeri. Similarly, they prefer pisnes (business) to the correct liiketoimint
a, kaara (car) to vaunu, paarti (party) to kekkeri, and saitvookki (sidewalk) to jalkakäytävä. Their common term for housemaid is tiskari, which comes from dishwater; the Finnish term is palvelijatar. There is a sentence, often heard, which contains only Finglish words, viz: Pussaa peipipoki kitsistä petiruumaan (Push the baby-buggy from the kitchen into the bedroom). In Finnish pussaa is a slang term for kiss. Here are some other loan-nouns, with the Finnish equivalents:

  English Finglish Finnish

  baby peipi vauva

  bed peti sänky, or vuode

  book puuka kirja

  business pisnes liiketoiminta

  coal koli kivihiili

  clerk klärkki kirjuri, or liikeapulainen

  fender fenteri likasuoja

  grocer krosseri ruokatavarakauppa

  linotype lainotaippi latomakone

  orange orenssi appelsiini

  room ruuma huone

  sale seili myynti

  shovel saveli lapio

  store stoori kauppapuoti

  street striitti katu

  teacher titseri opettaja

  tire taieri kumirengas

  Most Finnish words end in vowels, so it is usual for the Finnish-Americans to add a vowel to every loan-word which lacks one. No Finnish word ever begins with two consonants, so loan-words which show them are frequently changed, especially by the more recent immigrants. Thus steak becomes either steeki or teeki, truck is either troki or roki, stump is either stumppi or tumppi, and street may be striitti, triiti or riiti. Since there is no c in the Finnish alphabet crossing becomes kroosinki or roosinki. Since there is no f, drift (mining) may become drifti, rifti or rihti. The differences in sound between the English b and d and the Finnish p and t, respectively, are very slight, so bed becomes peti. The hardest English sound for Finns is that of th, but its difficulties are as nothing compared to those presented by the English articles and prepositions, which have no equivalents in Finnish. The newcomer tends to use them when they are not called for, and to omit them when they are. Adjectives are taken into Finglish less often than nouns, but a few have been borrowed for daily use, e.g., pisi (busy) and smartti (smart). The correct Finnish equivalents are touhukas (or kiire) and älykäs, respectively. Among the loan-verbs in everyday use are runnata (to run, in the political sense), pläännätä (to plan), skiimate (to scheme), titsata (to teach) and juusata (to use). In the Finnish papers in the United States the advertisements are commonly translated into Finglish rather than into Finnish. Done into the latter, a grocery or automobile advertisement would be unintelligible to a great many readers.118

  b. Hungarian

  Hungarian, like Finnish, belongs to the Finno-Ugrian group of languages, and in its structure differs very widely from English. In 1930 there were 274,450 persons of Hungarian birth in the United States, and of them 250,393 gave Hungarian as their mother-tongue. In addition there were 272,704 persons of Hungarian parentage and 43,614 of mixed parentage, making 590,768 in all. The Hungarians are mainly concentrated in the Middle Atlantic and East North Central States, and support thirty-three periodicals, of which four are dailies.

  American-Hungarian takes in loan-words in large number, and inflects them according to the pattern of the mother-tongue. Thus the verb is commonly outfitted with the usual Hungarian suffix, -ol or -el, and so to move becomes muffol, to catch kecsol, to stop sztoppol, to drive drájvol, to bum bomol, to treat tretel, to cash kesel or bekesel, to lunch luncsol, to finish finishel, and so on. The Hungarian suffixes for case are attached to all nouns, so that into the room becomes room-ba and from the room, room-bol. Verbs are outfitted in the same manner, e.g., fixolni (to fix), muvolni (to move), shoppingolni (to shop). The purest form of the infinitive suffix is -ni, e.g., irni (to write), but there are variations expressive of repetitions, abilities, etc. Hungarian is extraordinarily rich in inflectional forms, and ideas that would take a sentence in English are expressed by one word, e.g., megfixolni (to fix it), megfixol-tatni (to get it fixed), megfixoltathatni (to be able to get it fixed), megfixoltathatnánk (we could get it fixed). In making agent-nouns the agent-suffix, -os or -es, is usually added either to the borrowed word or to its stem, e.g., burdos (boarder), groszeros (grocer), storos (storekeeper), bucseros (butcher) and szalónos (saloonkeeper), but sometimes it is omitted, as in tícser (teacher), pénter (painter), feker (faker), koszcimer (customer), polisz (policeman), farmer (farmer) and oppretor (operator). Other nouns are modified in other ways to accord with Hungarian analogues, e.g., bokszi (box), farma (farm), majna (mine), kéki (cake), báré (bar), trubli (trouble); yet others are little changed save in spelling, e.g., groszeri (grocery), londri (laundry), dzsél (jail), ofisz (office), pádé (party), csenc or csensz (chance), szalon (saloon), ápsztész (upstairs), szvithárt (sweetheart), pikcser (moving-picture), szuer (sewer), piknik (picnic), aker (acre), bél (bail), bézment (basement), pléz (place), frend (friend), só (show), baket (bucket), páler (parlor), bajler (boiler), kontri (country), kvóder (quarter), biznesz (business), sztór (store), sop (shop), rum (room), kár (car), fíld (field), bász (boss), peda (payday), burdingház or burosház (boarding-house), jórman (foreman), bébi (baby), dáli (dolly), kendi (candy).

  Many of the common coins of idiom are adopted bodily, e.g., súr (sure), radovéba (right away), vatsemetre? (what’s the matter?), ó kontri (old country), ne vorrizz (don’t worry), nevermajnd (never mind), ai donker (I don’t care), ne baderolj (don’t bother me), olrajt (all right), daczolrajt (that’s all right). At other times the idioms are translated, e.g., óhaza (old country) and vegye a vena-tot (to take the train). Here is a sample conversation in American-Hungarian:

  A. Megfixolta a ploma a sinket? És olrajt csinálta? (Did the plumber fix the sink? Did he do it all right?).

  B. Sure, de nevermajnd, mert az a landlord biznisze (Sure, but never mind, that’s the landlord’s business).

  A. Daczolrajt! miért rézelte a rentet? (That’s all right! Why did he raise the rent?).

  And here are some other specimens:

  Fiam a hájszkulba jár, az elsó osztályt finiseli, a lányon kifiniselte a hájszkult és most ofiszba jár. (My son goes to high-school, and is finishing the first class; my daughter has finished high-school and goes to an office.)

  Minden munkába jaró embernek van kárja és maga drájvolja. A fiam is maga drájvolja a kárt, miker kimegy a fíldre. (Every workingman has a car and drives it himself. My son himself drives a car when he goes to the field.)

  Az uccán nagy a trafik, csak akker lehet átmenni a másik eldalra, ha sztoppolták a trafikot. (There is much traffic on the streets, and you can pass over only when the traffic is stopped.)

  Kinyitok egy kannát, megmelegitem és veszek kekit meg kendit. (I open a can, warm it, and buy cakes and candy.)119

  5. CELTIC

  a. Gaelic

  The Irish in America have made little progress in reacquiring the Goidelic Celtic which passes under the name of Gaelic in Ireland, and is now so busily inculcated by the Free State politicians. Some of the older folk among them make shift to speak it, but certainly not many. A column or so in it is sometimes printed in the Irish weeklies, but few can read it. The Welsh cling more resolutely to their national speech, which belongs to the Brythonic branch of Celtic, and there are two periodicals devoted to it — a monthly called Cyfaill and a weekly called Y Drych, both published at Utica, N. Y. The circulations of these journals seem to be small, and they contain much English matter. The 1931 Census showed 32,000 Gaelic-speaking persons in Canada, most of them Highland Scots. Of this number, 29,000 had been born west of the Atlantic, and 24,000 lived in Nova Scotia, mostly in Cape Breton. In the counties of Inverness and Victoria 75% of the population is Gaelic-speaking. On the Nova Scotian mainland there are about 2000 in the county of Antigonish who know the language, and perhaps 500 elsewhere. There are also 500 or more on Prince Edward Island.

  The only study of this American-Gaelic that I know of has been made by Mr. J. L. Campbell,120 to whom I am indebted for
what follows. He remarks that it differs from the French of Quebec and the German of Pennsylvania in that it has had no support, for years past, from a parent-tongue in full vigor at home. Gaelic has been under official disapproval in Scotland for 400 years, and it was supplanted by English in the schools of Nova Scotia in 1870. In 1918 provision was made for teaching it, but only as a second language, and it has made little if any progress. It is full of English loan-words, most of which it uses unchanged. But others have been Gaelicized, e.g., factoraidh (factory), càball (cable), copar (copper), dama (dam), stòbh (stove), fineadh (fine), Geancach (Yankee), post-mhaighstir (postmaster), bangaid (banquet), smuglair (smuggler), buiseal (bushel), bruis (brush), feansa (fence), mogais or mogaisean (moccasin), spruis (spruce), seudair (cedar), squa (squaw), staibh (stave). The plurals are often formed in the Gaelic manner, e.g., factoraidhean (factories), tréineachan (trains), càrachean-sràide (street-cars), maidseachan (matches), sentaichean (cents), clirichean (clearings), logaichean (logs). Mixed sentences are very frequent, e.g., “Air son càradh bhicycles tha sinn làn-uidheamaichte air son enamelling, brazing agus vulcanizing a dheanamh” (For repairing bicycles we are fully equipped, and for doing enameling, brazing and vulcanizing). The softening of consonants is common, e.g., char (car), bheat (beat), pharty (party). Loan-verbs are inflected for tense and mood, e.g., gu ’n callar (until he is called), ma phullas (if we pull). In place of the English -ing, -adh is sometimes used, e.g., driveadh (driving), startadh (starting), smashadh (smashing).

  6. SEMITIC

  a. Arabic

  The chief speakers of Arabic in the United States are the Syrians, most of them Christians from the Lebanon. There are also some Moslems and Druzes, but not many. These Syrians used to be classified in the Census returns as Turks, but they are now properly segregated. In 1930 the Census Bureau found 137,576 of them in the country — 52,227 who had been born in Syria, 69,034 born here of Syrian parents, and 11,315 born here of mixed parentage. But the leaders of the Syrian colonies believe that these figures were too low. They estimate that there are from 250,000 to 350,000 persons of Syrian blood in the country. The largest colony is in New York City, but there are others from coast to coast. Indeed, the Syrian-Americans, who are mainly merchants, are so widely dispersed that their historian, Dr. Philip K. Hitti of Princeton University, says that “there is not a State in the Union, and hardly a town of 5000 population or over, in which they are not represented.”121 They support many periodicals in Arabic, and also have several daily newspapers. There is also an English weekly in New York, the Syrian World, devoted to their interests. I am indebted to its amiable editor, Mr. H. I. Katibah, for notes which I summarize as follows: