AMERICAN LANGUAGE

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AMERICAN LANGUAGE. A term that presents AMERICAN ENGLISH as a national language, sometimes as an aggressive assertion of independence from the standard language of England: ‘This occasional tolerance for things American was never extended to the American language’ ( H. L. MENCKEN, The American Language, 4th edition, 1936); ‘George Bush is hardly known for his rhetorical gifts. But his speech at last summer's Republican Convention has already left its mark on the American language’ ( Laurence Zuckerman, ‘Read My Cliché’, Tiṃe, 16 Jan. 1989). Compare AMERICAN.

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AMERICAN LANGUAGE

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