The American Language Audiobook By H. L. Mencken cover art

The American Language

An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The American Language

By: H. L. Mencken
Narrated by: Rebecca H. Lee
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.70

Buy for $25.70

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

American author, scholar, and satirist H.L. Mencken wrote The American Language in 1919, intending to defend American speech from prescriptivist critics. "America itself is unutterably vulgar. But vulgarity, after all, means no more than a yielding to natural impulses in the face of conventional inhibitions, and that yielding to natural impulses is at the heart of all healthy language-making."

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2021 Rebecca H. Lee
Linguistics Social Sciences United States World Literature English Language Development
All stars
Most relevant  
Though the book is quite an informative guide to the study of the American language, yet there manifest a good number of mispronounced words, along with a dull and monotone style of narration.

The book is enjoyable, the narration poor.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Excellent and very well read. This is a classic and deserves to have someone like this reader interpreting it.

American Language

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

If you are interested in words and phrases and the differences between British and American English, you will enjoy this book. The book is over 100 years old, but it did not seem terribly antiquated to me. As regards the narration, the reader used many pronunciations that I have never heard of before. Perhaps she knows more about it than I do???

Interesting book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.