Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1892-12-14
GOTHAM'S DIALECT.
Peculiarities Of Pronunciation OBJ
- served in Now York.
strangers In tho Great City Arc at Once
Detected by Their Spcech-The
Peculiar Habit Formed In
Public Schools.

How many persons know that New
York city has Il dialect of its own, and
one that it maintains in purity by
teaching it in the public schools? says
n correspondence of the Providence Jour
nal. Many persons have commented on
the precision with which L New Yorker
can spot stranger the instant the
stranger undertakes to pronounce tho
names of the principal streets in the
town. We call it Broadway, cmphaSiz-
ing the last syllable ve-y strongly. 1t
appears to be quite q trick to do this
and 1T is evidently al unnatural pro-
nunciation, for VIC notice that tho very
great majority Of strangers soy broab-
wab. So VIC spot them on the instant
and ask them from what part OF tho
country they hail, just to show them
that there il something about thcrl That
is not Cityiicd, and 10 set them i2;l;ziinr
about whether it is in the shane of their
hat or the style of their shoes or what
it is. People from the south Ectray the
fact by calling our Houston street
"llGwston street" as that namc is pro-
nOuuccd from Texas to the Chesapeake,
but we play Us strange u tri2ti with an
other name: for VIC call COCntics slip
Quincy slip" AS no one would do
that naturally VIC dctcrt strangers by
shat pronunciation. The name of IIo-
b)!;cn is another that we tribe with,
calling it llabl1uclicn. instead CT as
we should. But in ways and By words
other than these | can pick out
New Yorker anywhere that he
and may meet, whether it be in Cos
ton or in the Ro1!:y mountains. l can
do this by mott ing how he pronounccs
thc ''ur" sound IL 81 n words rs birth,
bird, earth. heard. CT. All the rest Of
cha country pronounce these words
burth, buru. urti? and hard Notno the
New Yorker. lie is carefully taught
not to do So in all the publ: schools. as
well as by his parents ut home. The
queer little tI"i;t that rnt@rS 80 LARGELY
into our language III in2rriHg one Of
the cardinal sounds that compose it is
thus Expressed by Our tonr1cs: Ur-yith
Is how we say earth: Eur-yid is how wo
say bird. We say hHr~yid for heard and
nur-yiil-ticr for murder. All cf ua who
were born IN New York have hcarl the
public S:hooI-tc&"hcr insisting upon
this peculiar C"ist; Accommodating the pu-
pills 10 put on the trade mark rs fighting
mon one wore tho coat Of arms Of their
Scudal masters. Most of us. too, have
heard nice, careful little girls on the
way homo from school correcting care
less companions by insisting that you
mustn't shy burd; you must say it nicely,
| bur-yid."
OF Gl TIL scnsclcss and unmusical
and bal things that are done to Eng
tiSl that IS one Of the worst, bccausc
one expects to hear 20 language at It's
best in tho greatest city OF y country,
| md thithcr foreigners repair to study
| English ard then prepare to 20 back
nrInc and teach it with 4 whole lot OF
| little tricks like that in their heads. to
DC &olcmn!y tauGht and scattered, until
| no one knows where the mischief will
! end. Of course, do not want the
| reader to understand that very nice
| people murder the language in these or
! my othcr ways, but the great masses
! OF Now Workers, those who get their
corning in the public schools and
| those tongues were trained in old Ncv
| York homes Of the middle class-thcsc
| arc the victims of this peculiar habit.