Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1906-05-31
PECULIAR DIALECT OF
THE %SouTHERNERS
People From the Northern
States Seem to Be Unable
to Master It.
AN 81" SUPPLANTS "R'
But the Truth Of the latter 10, Thsrs
Is No Fixed Rule Of Prorun-
citation Of Most
Words.
AN ~" SUPPLANTs "R'
From the Richmond News-leader

T'oil tut tSlttlInONu NeWS-LeaueT.
Few things are more pathetically b
iurd than the attempt of northern
hewspa perS to reproduce in print what
they call the southern dialect. Tho
absurdity and foolishness of the per-
torrance are increased by the fact hat
now and then "A callow reporter on n
bouthcrn newspaper actually follows
these northern modes and a careless
ar ignorant editor permits the abomi-
natlon To go In type. A man in Ma
con. Ga. has been aroused by one Of
these cnormities and files a protest
IN the New York Herald OF recent date.
tie protests theoretically against quot
ing an alleged educated southerner AN
using sub for sir" and 'yo' for
you and "heah' for here" He also
objects to the regulation representation
~ southern people as using "ah' for
IL Ii would be- interesting to know
what special idiot devised tina notion.
We doubt II anybody on earth eve
heard ybo else say "ahll go over
for I'm go over" Yet "A per
20 carefully edited and usually exact az
the New York Sun Invariably quotes
southern people. white and negro, az
saying "ah'll' for ''Ill' when it UNI
hertakes to produce IA dialect story.
The truth is. there Is no such thing
as fixed and established rules for pro-
nunctation. The elegancies OF one gen.
cration are the ~vulgarities OF another.
When we talk OF pure English we do
not Know what we are talking about.
me purest English. according to the
of IA century ago, IL spoken
In the mountains of the south. where
people use the idioMs. expressions and
pro%nunciations OF George Washington
and Patr. Henry. We are told in
ms part a. Virginia on the very high
est authority that the tradition and
correct pronunciation of our own famil-
iar stream Is licenses river" Yet n
we dare to speak in the tongue OF the
anclents we xpos ourselves to ridi-
cule and to injurious suspicion as to
our earlier educational opp%ortunities
md our associations.
East vs. West.
Probably 1t is all n matter OF habk
and ear tuning. The western and eastl
ern people laugh at our suppressed r.s
and omitted g's. but the customers fire
at us II lot of IS as hard. harsh, I'M
gilniy ana aggressive as so many flint
pebbles, while the westernerS run I'm at
every opportunity with IA barrel or two
OF grinding, grating. miserable rs,
which have about the same effect on
our ears as securing them with coarse
sand We observe. however, that
within the last twenty years the east
Is coming steadily to the southern pro-
nunciation. II is only in very remote
settlements that We hear now Moo
YORK for New York" whereas II was
almost universal in that very city as
recently as 1880. The hideous offense
OF "Toosday' has nearly vanished from
the land. but educated and cultured
people on the other side of the Potomac
used To be victims of ii within the rec
objection of living men. Everybody
used to laugh NJ the N%irginians for
their pronunciation OF ear but among
people who affect precision and ele-
gance it is being adopted generally in
\ Mace inf tltn mara ntptt,n t,.r II,