The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1893-01-20
NEW Works. DIALECT.
Absurd Though 1t Is, 1t Is Taught in
the Public Schools,

How many persons know that New
York city mas a dialect all its own, and
one that it maintains i'll purity by teach
ing it in the public schools? Many per-
sons have commented en- the precision
with which a New Yorker can spot i
stranger the instant the stranger under
takes to pronounce the name of the priA-
cipal streets in the town. We call il
Broadway, emphasizing the last sylla-
BILE very strongly. 1t appears to be quite
a trick to do this, and it is evidently a.
unnatural pronunciation, for we notice
that the very great majority of stran-
gers say Broa-wa. So we spot them on
the instant and ask them from what
part Of the country they hail, just to
show them that there is something about
them that is not cityfied, and to set
them puZzling about whether it is in the
shape of their hat, Or the style of their
! shoes, or what it is.
People from the south betray the fact
by calling our Houston street "Hewston
| street." as that name is pronounced from
Texas to the Chesapeake, but we play
as strange a trick with another name,
for we call Coenties slip Quincy slip
AS no one would do that naturally, we
detect strangers by that pronunciation.
The name of Hoboken is another that
we trife with, calling it Habbucken.
But in ways and bywords other than
these l can pick out a New Yorker any
where that he and I may meet, whether
it be in Boston or in the Rocky noun
tains. can do this by noticing how he
H. GG.--r -@-~1 ~ ero1
words as birth, bird, earth, heard, etc
All the rest of the country pronounce
those words burth, burd, urth and hurd
Not so the New Yorker. He is care
fully taught not to do so in all the pub
lie schools, as we'll as by his parents a
home.
The queer little twist that enters s.
largely into our language in marring on
of the cardinal sounds that compose 1t
thus expressed by our tongues; ur-yltl
is how we sage earth, bur-yid is how W
say bird. We say hur-yid for hear
and m~ur-yid-der for murder. All of u
who were born in New York have hear
the public school teachers insisting upo
this peculiar twist, commanding tn
pupils to put on the trademark as hgh'
ing men once wore the coat OF arms
, their feudal masters. Most of US, to'
: have heard nice, careful little girls o
! the way home from school correctin
careless companions by insisting tn;
t. you mustn't say burd; you must say
nicely, bur-yid."
j., Of all the senseless and unmusical ar
bad things that are done to English tn
8 is one of the worst, because one expec
: to hear a language at it's best in Il
n greatest city Of a country, and th1th
n foreigners repair to study English al
. then perhaps to go back home and tea
Is it with a whole lot of little tricks Iii
n that in their heads, to be solemnly tang
and scattered, until no one knows whe
III the mischief will end. Of course L
. not want the reader to understand tn
~. very nice people murder the langua
n in these or any other ways, but the gre
masses of New Workers, those who
their learning in the public schools a
- whose tongues were trained in old N
m. York homes of the middle class-the
are the victims of this most pecul
Nc habit.-Cor. Providence Journal.