The extent of such influences upon American, and particularly upon spoken American, remains to be studied; in the whole literature I can find but one formal article upon the subject. That article[48] deals specifically with the suffix /-fest/, which came into American from the German and was probably suggested by familiarity with /sängerfest/. There is no mention of it in any of the dictionaries of Americanisms, and yet, in such forms as /talk-fest/ and /gabfest/ it is met with almost daily. So with /-heimer/, /-inski/ and /-bund/. Several years ago /-heimer/ had a great vogue in slang, and was rapidly done to death. But /wiseheimer/ remains [Pg152] in colloquial use as a facetious synonym for /smart-aleck/, and after awhile it may gradually acquire dignity. Far lowlier words, in fact, have worked their way in. /Buttinski/, perhaps, is going the same route. As for the words in /-bund/, many of them are already almost accepted. /Plunder-bund/ is now at least as good as /pork-barrel/ and /slush-fund/, and /money-bund/ is frequently heard in Congress.[49] Such locutions creep in stealthily, and are secure before they are suspected. Current slang, out of which the more decorous language dredges a large part of its raw materials, is full of them. /Nix/ and /nixy/, for /no/, are debased forms of the German /nichts/; /aber nit/, once as popular as /camouflage/, is obviously /aber nicht/. And a steady flow of nouns, all needed to designate objects introduced by immigrants, enriches the vocabulary. The Hungarians not only brought their national condiment with them; they also brought its name, /paprika/, and that name is now thoroughly American.[50] In the same way the Italians brought in /camorra/, /padrone/, /spaghetti/ and a score of other substantives, and the Jews made contributions from Yiddish and Hebrew and greatly reinforced certain old borrowings from German. Once such a loan-word gets in it takes firm root. During the first year of American participation in the World War an effort was made, on patriotic grounds, to substitute /liberty-cabbage/ for /sour-kraut/, but it quickly failed, for the name had become as completely Americanized as the thing itself, and so /liberty-cabbage/ seemed affected and absurd. In the same way a great many other German words survived the passions of the time. Nor could all the influence of the professional patriots obliterate that German influence which has fastened upon the American /yes/ something of the quality of /ja/.