ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews changes in the vocabulary of Modern English by recounting additions by means of borrowing. It looks at derivation as a source of new words. The chapter focuses on some of the factors in vocabulary loss, especially in connection with British— American differences. It explores alterations in the use of the language in regard to forms of address and expressions of politeness. The chapter summarizes modern changes in spelling, suggestions for reform, and the principles they are based on, as well as alternative systems of orthography and other approaches to spelling. In the British Isles, as elsewhere, people are highly aware of vocabulary differentiation according to class, gender, ethnicity, age, and region. A great many Native American borrowings came from the eastern Indians, many of them from the Algonquian language family, to which the tribes of New England all belonged, as did many of the tribes farther south and west.
