The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-05-11
Beforne the thieves he may sing and

way,
Beforne the thieves he may sing and
play
The southern people nave been much
criticised and ridiculed for this use OF
the letter r, and it has been called an
amectation. It may be, but 1t Is older
t.an American colonization or civiliza-
ton. / find a total suppression OF in
Wife of Baths Prologue" It occurs
in the lines:
10 here the wise king dan Solomon,
trow he had wives mo than one.
Aschan seems to have limited at the
other pronunciation in the following SEN
tence. in which he speaks of the impor-
tation of improper books Into England:
There be moe of these insratious
books" &c.
Ir this connection it is necessary to
explain some different pronunciatlons
which arise from this use Of r. The
word for. among us, as a rule, retains
Its sound OF o. though curtaiied to 10 ],
while far and farther become IA and
fa'tliah among the cultured and III ana
fu.Gah among the uncultured. Inc last
Is found among the old writer's as both
fer and fur" There and where are
represented by 'thah' and "whah, put
with two different RECOMMENDATIONS. which
distinctly mark the classes using them.
..1hah" and "whah,'' with a sound as In
care. mark a. certain degree OF culture.
1-he same words, with a sound as IN lar.
indicate the ignorant and unlettered, un-
less as In u few cases. this last pronun-
ciat;on is a careless affectation. The
two pronlInciations are found throughout
the South. The same rule holds good
with many other words OF like sound,
sucl, as hair, fair, mare. bear, and those
Of similar SOUND. Tho preceding discus
sion will show, partially at least. the
trea tment this letter receives at the
hands of the South Any one not nccus-
toned to this dialect can form some idea
of It from the following words spelled
as the southerner would pronounce them:
Fahnl. rivah, sistah. buttah. dlnnah,
BAN Cbarn), wo'd {word). There are a
great many words in which the letter
retains its full force. This is especially
true where it precedes a vowel, not
silent, or begins Il word.
This soft meditation of speech may be
traced to three causes. Tho first IS Gil
matte Influences 1t is a. well known
fact that all southern peoples, through
out the world. speak less harshly than
those in higher ATTITUDES. They use
more yocals and fewer consonant ana
cultural sounds. The Romance tongues
are softer and more musical than the
Teutonic and Slavonic. From this cause
alone the speech of New England would
in the course of two and half centuries
be different from that of the CarolinaS.
Precisely this has occurred in the case
given although both sections were settled
by the sauna stock anG coming from
much the same surroundings. Another
fact must be taken into ccnsiderau on'
which seems to prove that climatic
influences have much to do with this
softenng OF speech, namely. the differ
ence, Of the speech Of the Southerners
themselves. find that the people who
live. in the mountains of Virginia do not
soften or tone down the letter. 7. like
the people who live in the lowland re-
-ons In these upland counties the is
trilled as much as in the higher ATTITUDES.
This is just as true for the natives OF
North Carolina, Tennessee and other
mountain sections as of Virginia find
little or no difference In the speech OF
the young ladies who come from the
mountains Of Virginia to the instiu-
ton, situated in my town, and these who
IRE from Pennsylvania or New York
This would seem to indicate that what
the latter had, of climatic influences, in
latitude. the former had in altitude AS
the letter, r. renders the word in which