LANGUAGE OF NEW-ENGLAND. LETTER I. The English Language in this Country pronounced more correctly than in England. Blunders in Language customary in London. Reasons why the People of NewEngland pronounce the English Language with propriety. DEAR SIR; AMONG the things for which the people of the United States, particularly of New-England, have been censured and ridiculed by your countrymen, our language, in a variety of respects, has come in for its share. We have been accused of an erroneous pronunciation; of retaining ancient words, which you have discarded; of annexing to others an unwarranted meaning; of coining new ones; and of thus contributing to render the language perplexed, unsettled, and imperfect. As I have never seen this subject examined, except on one side, I shall take the liberty to give you a few thoughts concerning it; and flatter myself that you will willingly accompany me through the investigation. I shall not, I believe, offend against either truth or propriety if I say, that the English language is in this country pronounced more correctly than in England. I am not, indeed, sanguine enough to expect, that you will credit the assertion, nor that you will believe me to be a competent judge of the subject. Still I am satisfied that the assertion is true. That you may not mistake my meaning, I observe, that by a correct pronunciation I intend that of London; and, if you please, that of well-bred people in London. You may, perhaps, be inclined to ask, how I can even know what this pronunciation is. I know it in two ways: from hearing a considerable number of Englishmen of this description converse extensively; and from information whicn enlightened Americans have given me concerning the subject, who have resided in London. In both ways my information has been so extensive, as to forbid every reasonable doubt, in my own mind, concerning its sufficiency. When I say that the language is pronounced here more correctly than in England, I do not intend, that it is pronounced more correctly, or even as much so, as by some Englishmen; although in this respect I have good reason to believe the difference to be scarcely perceptible*. This I was taught before the revolutionary war, by an English gentleman, an inhabitant of London; who resided in New-Haven a considerable time, and who was several years in the service of the British government. Since that period I have been often told the same thing by respectable Englishmen, traveling or residing on this side of the Atlantic. I have also found the observation verified by the pronunciation of these very Englishmen, and of others. My meaning is, that the inhabitants at large speak English with a nearer accordance to your standard of pronunciation, than the inhabitants of England. Of this the proof is complete. I have seen a dramatic performance, written in the West country dialect; the words being spelt according to the local pronunciation of which I was scarcely able to understand a sentence. I have also seen a volume of poems, professedly written in the dialect of Yorkshire, in which, independently of some local phraseology, the distorted pronunciation required a glossary to explain the meaning of many sentences, even to an English reader. Now, sir, it is no exaggeration to say, that from Machias to St. Mary's, and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, every American, descended from English ancestors, understands every other, as readily as if he had been bred in the same neighbourhood. I have • Several American gentlemen have informed me, that respectable Englishmen, to whom they have been introduced, have taken it for granted, and even insisted, that they must have been either born or educated in England, because they spoke the language exactly like themselves. continually and long had under my own instruction youths from almost all the American states, and am ordinarily unable to conjecture, from their pronunciation, the part of the country which gave them birth. There is nothing here which can be called, without an abuse of language, dialectic. This, it is believed, cannot be said of an equal number of people in any country of Europe. The differences of pronunciation, here, are of no moment, unless that of the vowel U deserves to be excepted. Permit me to turn your attention to the pronunciation of London itself; and to the mistakes and abuses adopted, or rather inherited, by those who were born within the sound of Bow bells. You would scarcely be able, if you were to search every house in New-England, and glean the whole number of individual blunders, to make up such a list as Pegge, in his Anecdotes of the English Language, has given us of the errors which for ages have found a residence in your metropolis. To refresh your memory, as well as for some other reasons, I will set down a short catalogue of these elegant peculiarities. |