American Pronunciation.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 812, 16 June 1876, Page 6

American Pronunciation.

— - — ♦- — -■■ Richard Grant White speaks thus plainly, and with a touch of fine incisive humor, upon the subject of American pronunciation of English ;— =• "Moreover, aa to pronunciation, the observation, of th,e average, American is very

untrustworthy ; for it is in .that respect that the speech of the average 'American, however ' polite ' and ' intelligent ' he may be, is most likely to deviate from the true English standard. Asa people we utter our language vilely ; as a people we hnve a had tone of voice, and very unpleasant infections, in great va»iety of unpleasantness, according to the place of our birth and bi •c*? u>£. It i only in a comparatively smal-, although actually numerous circle of people of hig social culture in New England and New York, and in the latter place among those of New England birth, or very direct descent, that the true standard of English speech ia found in this country. And even there we too often find proper pronunciation marred by a bad enunciation — a tone nasal and drawling, united to a disposition to a slovenly dropping or slurring of syllables. The clear, firm, crisp enunciation of the well-bred Englishman, and particularly of the well-bred English woman is heard, even among our most cultivated people, with comparative rarity. What is it that has so vitiated the voices of most American men, and still more of most American women 1 For there is no doubt that the fair sex are in this respect the least to be admired. Among a hundred men you will find perhaps ten or a dozen who open their mouths and speak clearly and freely ; but among a hundred women, not more than one. You shall see a bright, lovely creature, with all the external evidences of culture about her, a woman who will carry you captive so long as she is silent ; but let her open her pretty lips, and she shall pierce your ear with a mean, thin, nasal, rasping tone, which at once diminishes her charm. An English woman, even of the lower classes, will delight you with the rich, sweet, smooth, and yet firm and crisp tones in which she utters what may, perhaps, be very bad 4 grammar.' And since I am telling unpleasant truths about ourselves, I may aa well say here that there is more of this among both Western men and women than among those in other quarters of the country. I recently went into one of our most frequented theatres to pass an hour. There was a scene in progress, and I remained for the time standing just within the door. A lady was doing some emotional business with a high manifestation of toilet and gesticulation. I listened a few minutes, and then, turning to an apparently official person, I asked him who she was, for the situations and the personages of the play were unknown to me. * That,' he replied, in a tone of some awe (for she was the ' leading lady,' and the house was very full), and looking at me much as if I had asked a like question as to General Grant or the statue of Washington in the square— 'That is Miss ,' naming a Western actress of some celebrity. I listened for a few minutes more, and then fled the house. The tone of her voice propelled me from the door like a pellet from a popgun. All the emotional and sensational convulsions into which she could have fallen would not have allured me to sifc under her ministrations of the English language for one quarter of an hour. And her speech betrayed her as if she had been a female Peter ; for I knew before I was told that she must have come from the region west of the Alleghanies." — 'Galaxy' for 4pril.