1)The American Revolution of the British colonies who declared themselves independent marked the turning point in the making of new, American kind of English. 2)The men who gathered in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence understood the power of language to shape national consciousness. 3)In 1782, the citizens of the new Republic were proudly christened "Americans", and in 1802, the United States Congress recorded the first use of the phrase "the American language". 4) Thomas Jefferson, who at the age of thirty-three was chiefly responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence, was fascinated by new words. 5) Not surprisingly for a man who designed his own house, his own writing desk and his own telescope. 6)He liked to invent words. 7) He also gave his approval to the new currency terms like "cent" and "dollar". Benjamin Franklin was a printer who set up shop in Philadelphia at the age of seventeen. 8)He took a tireless interest in the world around him - he organized the first fire brigade, he founded the first free public library, he was among the first to wear spectacles. 9)At heart a printer, he got interested in chaotic spelling conventions of the English language and, typically enough, proposed its reform. 10) In 1768, he published a paper entitled "A Scheme for a New Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling"
