Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-11-15
SPEECH OF SOUTHERN wo@EBa
An Author Who Thinks 1t Is the Most
Pleasant In America.

SPEECH Or SOU IHthN WOWSp q
An Author Who Thinks 1t Is the Most
Pleasant In America.
Mr. Theodore II. Meade has publish
cd a little book on "Our Mother
Tongue" in which he takes occasion to
criticise the speech of American wom-
en-, saying, among other things, that it
is really notable thing, a something
that is instantly remarked, when an
American woman in speaking has O
pleasant voice and uses it with good
modulation.
"But," he continues, "theTe are
women in America who, as a rule, even
in conyersati III, have quite sweet voices
and a method Of speaking which could
be made at once pleasant and correct.
1 allude to the women Of the southern
states This is due, no doubt, to the
pure and more sonorous use Of the VOW
els by southern women than by their
northern sisters, and to the less harsh
employment of the consonants. The use
full but dangerous r, which plays such
sad havoc in the speech Of the majority
of Americans, is all but ignored by
southern women, and many Of them are
as innocent Of RS as cockneys arc Of
his. Probably, however, the musical
effect comes to greater extent from a
proper use Of the yowels--from giving
its full significance for instance, to u
instead Of giving that vowel the sound
90. A southern woman would never
speak Of reading Moo York noospa-
per- she would not eat 'stoo, nor
would she go out in the doc. She
would, however, open the doe, and
walk over the foe. She knows her
us very well, but has little acquaint-
ance with any RS. But even the ignO-
ring Of the RS entirely has not in it
the offense Of giving to them more than
their due significance. A 'dore' and a
fore, where the r. in each word is
long and somewhat rolling, seem some
thing else than what we should be ac-
customed to, while the pleasant greet
ing from a friend, Good morning,
with roll in the r, has in it some
thing Of the sound Of menace rather
than friendliness.
II have often wondered why south
ern women should use these yowels and
consonants more pleasantly than other
Americans, and have reached a con-
clusion which many southern women-
my sisters and other kinsfolk among
the rest-will, no doubt, fail to acqui-
esce in. They certainly did not achieve
these pleasant results through training,
because, if anything, they are not as
carefully trained at school as girls in
the northern states. Nor could it have
been entirely by inheritance, for there
is not great difference between the
ancestry Of the north and the south,
though in the latter section the people
NAV DO trihe more hOmOgeneously
English. The difference, I am persuad-
ed, is due in a very great measure, If
not entirely, to the influence that the
negroes have had in the speech Of the
southern people Children, who start
out in life with voices as sweet as the
chirping birds and tones as pure as
the notes Of a flute, learn their first
words from the nurses in whose charge
they are, and southern children are uni
versally reared by negro nurses. What
they then learn gradually, and genera
ton by generation, becomes easilya part
Of the speech Of the mature man and
woman.
"And the woman, staying more at
home and coming less in contact with
the big world, preserves more Of the
lessons and habits Of infancy than the
man. Now tho negro, by nature, by
instinct, discards what is harsh, discord-
ant and unmusical in speech, and for
the same reason adopts that which Is
pleasant and musical to the ear. l think
no one will contest this assumption who
has ever heard the negroes speak and
sing in those parts Of the south where,
on account Of their numerical superiori-
ty, they are very little under any intiu-
ence save that Of their own race. Atri-
can travellers have also assured me that
one Of the peculiarities Of the savage Of
the Jungle was his natural fondness for
the soft sounding and the harmonious.
If my theory be true, that negro infu-
ence has contributed to the soft, sweet
voices Of tho southern women, then l
am sure they have much to thank this
race for besides the faithful service
which has been rendered by them for SO
many generations.