Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1859-03-23
Daily 4lr9lalaa.
Rnriish and-American Pronunciation o.
the English Language.


the English Language.
Mr.. George p. Marsh. late United States Minis
ter 10 Canstantinepie, whose rare scholarship en-
iueatiy fitted him for the task has been delivering
a coarse of lestures in New York on the English
language In his last lecture. lie said
The English Language was affected by every
thing thar quali6ea our existence'n this country
By the great influx Of foreigners who IN adopting
our sceech infused into it something OF their own
by the climatic Influences which had their effect
on the organs OF speech and by the generally dit
fu.ea h. bt of reading. Still our English. though
the best hest of it might be equal to the best
in England was on the whole, better thnh tue
English of Englishmen. And with US the Ian
gnag, was far more homogeneous than 1t was IN
F.. na,;ye land. The differences between the
English of the two countries were mainly confined
to the spoken language. and in that differences 81
accent which. in many cases. were already marx
cd Some Emergencies ight be explained upon
the suppositon that sections of this country had
been settled mainly by persons speaking necn-
liar dialect of English. which was preserved here,
though it had died out in the old Cnuntry. Inc
inhabitants Of the eastern shore OF Virginia were
said to retain some Shaksperian words not now IN
use elsewhere. Similar peculiarties were observa-
HE IN the dialect Of south eastern Massachusetts
inha ,i,cd almost exclusively by the descendants OF
the FIRST settlers.
An American wa. struck in England by the
universal use oil such l'nFaSct u@, IL - nv W.
sometimes sit is him. AMI these were even de
Tended by some British grammarans. Most
Enclshmen thought That we drawlcd in our PRO-
nuncaiion, Mr. March thought that we did pro
nounce our vowels more distinctly than the Eng
lish This he thought due in part. t"the fact THAI
we were more generally reading people ,'an The
En- ,lish familiarity with the printed word having
a tendency to produce accuracy aud inllncsS OF
Recommendation, making, for instance four Syilahles
Of dictionary aud military, instead Of sinking the
thirl. t., in England. The tendency 10 make the
Ion. vowels diphthongal. often not'c'd by foreign
ers among us. was similar to this. The other
cause is TO be found in our warmer climate Ar
ticulation was always moro distinct IN warm than
in cold climates that noticeable IN our own
States as well rs in the States 81 Europe. In
bringing the language from Englan', we had
given To it something OF the more distinct arti'u.
lation which belonged to dryer atmosphere and
Il clearer sky. And our brethren IN the Southern
States were inclined. like the people ct southern
Europe, to throw the accent toward the cad OF the
word. Not to mention more important changes,
many n Northern member OF Cang'e>s hal gone to
W,rington n dact,l or II troehee, Al d emo back
an an. rhibrach Or an iambus.
So We were fas, acquiring an Anglo, american
tongue. Even our handwriting was 80 unlike
commc u script in England "a to he readily dis
tngu halle. This popularity OF dawIing "as
some zines disagrecable cnoug but It Wa'no'r"d
understood by them. aud rendering " more easy
for us to acquire good pronunciation OF foreign
languages. AT any rate. it was preferable to tn"
nause1 us mumbling of the t"chney. We had
peculiar vowel, especially in New England that
heard in none and coat, quite different from that
in knomn or note We also re;a,ncd the sound
heard in MAR. lair. par for which the English
had substited long a, as in mayor, hWf, Pdy,'.-,
To the charge of nasality, he was obliged to plead
that the most fragrant instance of it which he had
ever heard was from an English clergyman OF the
Established Church, in fashionable Continent
pulpit. Mr.. Marsh noticed the local peculiariics
of the pronunciation Off in la~r and dodh, but he
said that a> an offset, nobody ever saw an Am'rl-
Dan lady in doubt whether she should hrxaspernic
the haiich, or an American Weller whether he
should smell veal with n re. 1t seemed probable
that the English would lo,c ,hc nsp'rnte entirely,
There were other differences. Tut rs yet they wcr"
81 subtle to admit definition. They lay chiefly IN
intonation No Eastern man could lcnr South
ern man pronounce the oyocaliNc and notpcrceiNr
as,riking difference.