Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-08
THE SOUTHERN DIALECT.
Northern Attempts to Reproduce
Dixie's Pronunciation.

DlG1es recommendation.
From the Richmond News-Leader
Few things are more pathetica!Iy absurd
than the attempt of northern newspa Ders
to reproduce in print what they call the
southern dialect. The absurdity and fool
ishness OF the performance are increa sed
by the fact that now and then a callow re-
porter on southern newspaper actually
| follows these northern models and a care
| less or ignorant editor permits the abomi-
nation to go IN type. A man in Macon.
| Ga, has been aroused by one OF these enor
mites and files a protest In the New YORK
Herald Of recent date. He protests energet
icaliy against quoting an alleged educated
| southerner as using sub" for sir and
| ''yo' for you and hear for here" He
! also objects to the regulation representa-
ton of southern people as using "ah' for
II" 1t would be interesting to know what
| special idiot devised that notion We doubt
| II anybody on earth every heard anybody
| else say "ahll go over for IN go over -
yet newspaper so carefully edited and
usually exact as the New York Sun inva-
! riabiy quotes southern people, white and
negro, as saying 'ahll' Tor 'l'lP' when 1t
Undertakes to produce a dialect story.
The truth is. there Is no such thing as
fixed and established rules for pronuncia-
ton. The elegances of one generation are
the Vulgarities OF another. When we talk
or pure English we do not know what we
are talking about. The purest English ar
cording to the standards of a century ago.
is spoken in the mountains of the south
where people use the idioms expressions
and recommendations of George Washington
and Patrick Henry. We are told in this
part of Virginia on the very highest au-
thority that the tradition and correct pro-
nunciation or our own familiar stream is
licenses river" Yet II we dare to speak
IN the tongue of the ancients We expose
ourselves to ridcule and to injurious sus-
picion as to our earlier educational oppor-
tuniues and our associations.
Probably IL Is all a matter of habit and
ear-tuning. The western and eastern people
laugh at our suppressed-r's and omitted gs
but the fasteners fire at us a lot of e. as
hard, harsh ungainly and aggressive as so
many flint pebbles. while the westerners
run in at every opportunity with a barrel
or two of grinding. grating, miserable RS,
which have about the same effect on our
ears as securing them with coarse sand
paper. We observe. however, that within
the last twenty years the east is coming
steadily to the southern pronunciation 1t
is only in very remote settlements that
we hear now moo York. for New York
whereas 1t was almost universal IN that very
city as recently 1850. The hideous or
Tense or "Toosday'' has nearly vanished
from the land, but educated and cultured
people on the other side of the Potomac
used TO be victims of 1t within the reco,-
! lection OF living men. Everybody used to
laugh at the Virginians for their pronun-
affect precision and elegance 1t is being
adopted generally in place of the more
common way. which makes the word sound
as II it were spelled with a k. Probably
the stage is as good a guide for pronuncia-
ton as we have. Players of the best class
study not only what is elegant and the best
usage, but what is likely to be pleasant to
the ear and effective and the trend toward
southern methods and customs In pronun-
citation Is steady and plain. This seems to
indicate that we are nearer right than any
body. 1t does not make any special differ
ence. Thanks be there are enough south
ern people who do not strive to initiate
anybody to keep alive and in active use our
own methods of using English. and we have
no Idea at all of changing. It would be
1 gratifying. however. as well as Instructive,
IL the talented individuals who produce
newspapers and magazines and best-seller
literature, and undertake to quote southern
peoples conversation, would give some In
telligent study to the relatives, and thereby
produce something in the neighborhood of
accuracy.