Evening star., 1940-02-25
BY WILLIAM IL. SHIPPEN, .Jr.


Washington, the city of oratory,
debate and glib persuasion, where
enough hot air is manufactured
every day to float the Capitol dome,
draws for expression upon every
accent of the American tongue, but
makes none of them its own.
The typical Washington accent is
distinguished by a total lack of ac-
cent-a negative virtue which never
theless might be envied by the New
Yorker, the Westerner or even the
Southerner, now that the professors
have weighed their dictions' and
found them wanting in certain ele-
ments of listener appeal
A series of talking ADDITIONS ar
ranged by New York University re-
vealed that listeners in all parts Of
the country reacted unfavorably to
the New Yorkers' "foists," "thoity-
thoids," etc. They were placed on
par with the peculiarities in the
accents of foreigners. Surprising as
it may seem, the Southerners failed
to rate as high in vocal appeal as
might have been supposed.
The palm In pleasing diction went
to a Pennsylvania whose tongue
failed to betray his origin by Slip
ping into colloqualisms.
Virginians, Marylanders Rate High.
Southerners from Virginia and
Maryland rated higher than their
fellows from the Deep South. The
tests were made with recordings Of
typical" dialects These were sent
to colleges in various parts of the
country and students voted on their
listener appeal.
The New York professors were
frank to admit that their Manhat-
tan and Brooklyn dialects were not
drawn from the uneducated classes
alone. They were trying to learn,
among other things, If an obvious
dialect would handicap a salesman
or any other type of business or
professional man in dealing with the
public outside Of his home COM
munity. The answer seemed to be
"Yes!"
Instructors in English and public
speaking in Washington are inclined
to agree. They argue that the Cap
ital, "the melting pot of the Amer
ican language" is the logical place
for the study of English as spoken
in the United States. The students
classmates will be drawn from the
North, East, South and West, and he
eventually will learn to speak some
thing of compromise between the
broad GAS" of the Bostonian, the
nasal twang of the Midwest or the
soft. drawing accents of the deep
South.
G. w. U. Students Tested.
At George Washington University
just now students of public speak
ing from almost every State and
several foreign countries are COM
pairing their present diction with
samples recorded when they first
arrived in Washington Mostly they
recorded a tricky discussion of
Arthur, the rat who couldn't make
up his mind" This is a compo-
sition about the misfortunes of
Arthur calculated to emphasize
every vowel and consonant sound
in the English language.
DR.. H. F. Harding, assistant pro-
fessor of public speaking, selected
several of the recordings the other
day-one by North Carolinian, an
other by a native of Brooklyn, a
third by a student from Kansas.
From this babhle of tongues, DR..
Harding hopes, will emerge an enun-
ciation rejecting none Of the weak
nesses and most of the potency of
the American language as spoken
in the United States today.
The radio and the talking moving
picture, while not entirely unmixed
blessings, are doing much to smooth
out differences in speech in the
United States. Old-timers mourn
the loss of the salty. vigorous Ian
guage dear to more or less isolated
communities, and students of folk
customs are busy recording 1t for
pcsterity in many localities. Yet
the day of the dialect is passing
Yankee, hill billy, Kansan, Southern
colonel or Oregon sheepman are
tending toward a common tongue.
The Tongue Of the Future.
The American language of the
future may approximate the typical
Washington dialect-a little of this
and that, from here and there.
"The most pleasing dialect" said
an English professor, who feared he