Blog One: Learning Outcome 2: "Made in America"

It is clear that travel in America had a huge impact on the English language. When American soil was first settled on the Europeans were unable to efficiently communicate. Not only was it a long and difficult process to carry messages from America to Europe and back, but it was also a struggle to communicate messages between people on the same continent. The New World not only lacked a system that could deliver messages proficiently, but they simply didn't have the proper means of transportation. To correct this problem, new means of transportation came about, and with that came new words. Railroads were built and provided an alternative form of transportation that was far better than the uncomfortable and slow paced carriages of the time. "Even so, early trains were also slow, uncomfortable, and dangerous." The word "eyedrops" entered the language as a joke, because the hot cinders from the train would blow into passengers eyes if they had the window open. Another word that entered the language thanks to the railroads was dining car, since customers needed a place to eat while on their long voyages. With the invention of the train also came the need for railroad terms like caboose, iron horse, cow catcher, jerkwater tower, to featherbed, to ball the jack, to ride the rails, and to ride the gravy train. The need for automobile travel in America also had a huge impact on the English language and gave us many terms we use today, even if they're taken from other languages and tweaked to our liking. In Bill Bryson's "Made in America" he states, "Although early technological developments were almost exclusively German, it was the French who became the first big manufacturers and thus gave us many of the words associated with motoring- chassis, garage, chauffeur, carburetor, coupe, limousine, and of course automobile itself." Obviously a great deal of the English language was shaped and continues to be shaped by travel in America, because naturally, the invention of new things leads to the need for new words.