Pamela Severson, age 12, of Rockfor d, Ill... for her question:

How did the American language begin?

The American language grew with the  American people. Like the early colonists, it was at first a child of England. That is why the American language is basically English.. The colonists, of course, freed themselves from the mother country and became Americans, At first, taming the wilderness was a full time job and there was little time for language and literature. A few people kept diaries   which today make very interesting reading. But the language used was the same as that used in England some 200 years ago.

After the Revolution, Americans began to think of themselves as Americana. They thought of the ideals of freedom, justice and the kind of democratic government under which free people should live. These are noble thoughts and they revealed themselves in the words and writings of such great men as Franklin, Jefferson, Whitman, Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

We might say that our language became American at that time. For the Founding Fathers and the writers who followed them gave new American meanings to old words and old terms. The gave the world new American meanings for the words freedom, justice and democracy.

And the world was interested. People came from many lands and they brought with them many languages. The Chinese brought the words chop suey and chow mein and added them to the American language. The Italians brought the word spaghetti   and showed us how to make the wonderful dish. The American language borrowed words from the Spanish, French, German, Dutch and a few expressions from the Irish.

Then came the Age of Science and new words had to be created for new inventions. The cotton gin was invented and named in America as were many other things never made by man before. New words for new inventions and new discoveries are added to the American language every year.

The American language, though basically English, is a wonderful mixture, like the American people who came from all over the world. The adding of new words and the borrowing of foreign words is still going on. A short time ago we borrowed the word sputnik from the Russians.

The colonists started borrowing words, especially place names., from the original Americans = the Indians.  Ohio, Oklahoma and your home state of Illinois are but a few of the states bearing Indian names, Detroit and Chicago are cities with Indian names. The Indians gave the beau b.iful Niagara Falls its beautiful name and what rivers in the itorld have more beautiful names than the Allegheny and the Monongahela? They are American names, part of the American language   but we borrowed them from the Indians.