Wichita eagle., 1888-03-07
"ENGLISH, YOU KNOW
OUR VOICES DIFFER FROM THOSE OF
OUR BRITISH COUSINS.
The Anglomaniacs Imitation Scarcely SO
Good as Might Be Observation-Disclosures
Between American and English Enun-
ciatior--NoH-English Pronunciation.


ciation-Non-Engli.h Pronunciation.
Nowadays, when even the salesladies cry
"carsh" or ''cawsh," we realize that Anglo
mania has penetrated the whole mass Of
society. We need not be very old to recol-
lect the time when English people were voted
dull and stiff, English dress dowdy and taste
less, and the English accent was theme for
perfunctory jokes of the humber lecturer.
Imitation is the sincerest fiattery, and our
British cousins may seem ungracious in sug-
costing that the imitation is scarcely so good
as might he desired.
Flora McF1imsey is young woman who
tolls not neither does she spin; and we sec
her spend her strength in futile efforts to
teach her tongue the English tricks, with
heart unmoved to pity. But it is pathetic
VIXEN the daughters Of toll waste their
needed energies in efforts SO vain. For they
are vain, and Flora McFlimsy will never be,
as she fatters herself she will be, mistaken
for Jenny Bull Her speech, in spite Of her
pains, betraycth her.
Our voices differ from those Of our cousins
over the water. Our drier air, our often
over strained nerves, or our severe winters,
affecting the lungs of successive generations,
frequently produce those strident, rasping
tones which excite the execration of Gail
Hamilton. English voices arc, as q rule,
soft, full, round, low in pitch and when
feminine) low in contradistinc5ion to loud, as
was gentle Cordelia's She, therefore, who
would fain rehnquish the presidents English
and adopt the queens English must not cry
aloud, and especially must not cause her
voice TO be heard in the streets. A Billings
gate flshwife can misplace his and utter vul-
garity in such rich, melodious voice as is
rarely heard in New York drawing room.
A WELL OPENED THROAT.
English speakers also open the throat more
widely than we do. All singers understand
the great difference between the round note
emitted By a we'll opened throat and the fat,
thin sound produced by a languid singer. To
an Englshman Americans seem to speak
with the throat but half open.
Cultivated Americans and the gentry Of
England aud Ireland differ not 50 much in
their modes Of pronouncinS words as in their
manner of informing sentences. In the speech
of Irish people we hear fall in the voice at
the close Of almost every phrase or sentence.
The first words are spoken il a higher must
cal pitch than the last. Americans, ON the
contrary, speak with rising infection to
ward the close of the phrase or sentence. The
English speech, except when impasioned,
is comparatively monotone Hence Flora
McFlimsey destroys all the uni.ies when she
IS simultaneously "vivacious" and English
Our bellies nowadays speak with a stress
aid on every fifth OF sixth word The ever
recurring emphasis suggests page from an
old fashioned novel Of tho bitter sweet sort,
where the tale is all of love and woe, and
he sentences strewed with words In italics or
small capitals
This is utterly un-English. Though our
-reiles call the street cars trans frequently
say Don't you known and do not often for
get 70 pronounce "a broad, tbey have By no
means succeeded in identifying their speech
with that of the daughters Of Albion
Whether it is desirable that they should do
50 IN ali respects Is 10 say the least, an open
question: But II viii be certainly well tha:
they snail cultivate low, pleasant speaking
Voices, such as Tame praised, and such as are
not only English, yea know" but also ''an
excellent thing Ia woman e n Hardinzs
il The Epoch