American Language (64 page)

The historical study of American pronunciation was put on a solid basis by the publication of the second volume of the late George Philip Krapp’s “The English Language in America” in 1925. There had been scattering investigations on the subject before then, but Dr. Krapp was the first to undertake an exhaustive examination of the available material — the early dictionaries, grammars and spelling
books, the attempts at devising phonetic alphabets, and the records of the Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York towns, many of them made by unlearned men and written phonetically. One of his conclusions was that most of the peculiarities of American pronunciation have historical precedents in England, and that many of them may be found to this day in the English dialects. Even the nasalization which Englishmen always mark in American speech “is by no means exclusively American.” It was charged to the English Puritans by their critics, and is denounced in “Hudibras,” Part I, Canto III. Dr. Krapp believed that “differences of practise among standard American speakers, that is, among members of good standing in the community, were formerly much more numerous than they are today,” and that they “continue to show an increasing tendency to disappear in an all-embracing uniformity.” He demonstrated that many forms now confined to isolated speech-islands, for example, in rural New England or the remoter parts of the South, were once almost universal. He showed that the type of American prevailing in the Boston area and in the tidewater regions of the South is closely related historically to the Southern type of English, and that Western America is derived, at least in large part, from Northern English.
⁴⁴

One of the most noticeable differences between Standard English and Standard American lies in the varying pronunciation of
a
in about 150 words in everyday use. The English, in general, prefer the broad
a
of
dark
before
f, ft, m, nch, nd, nt, sk, sp, ss, st
and
th
, as in
laugh, draft ca(l)m, branch, command, chant, ask, clasp, grass, last
and
path
, whereas most Americans use the flat
a
of
that
.
⁴⁵
But these preferences are not invariable. There are many Englishmen, otherwise quite orthodox in their speech habits, who incline toward the flat
a
before
n
and
f
and before
s
followed by a consonant,
⁴⁶
and nearly all of them use it in
fancy
, despite a general American belief, promoted by haw-haw types on the stage, that they always say
fahncy
. They also use it in
stamp
, though they cling to the broad
a
in
example
. Again, they prefer the flat
a
of
rack
in
amass, elastic, gas, lass, mass, massive, masticate
and
plastic
. Finally, they pronounce the verb
can
just as we do, though they sound the broad
a
in
can’t.
⁴⁷
Contrariwise, most Americans use the broad
a
before (
l
)
m
, as in
palm
, and virtually all use it before
r
, or
r
and a consonant, as in
bar, cart, park, harm
, etc., and before
th
in
father
. Moreover, it is used in most of the English situations in the Boston area, though with a slight change in value, and in a number of words in the South,
e.g., master, aunt, tomato, tassel.
⁴⁸

It used to be believed that the broad
a
was historically the more respectable, and that the flat
a
had come into American and into some of the English dialects as a corruption, but the exhaustive researches of Krapp have disposed of that notion.
⁴⁹
During most of the
Eighteenth Century, in fact, a broad
a
was regarded in both England and America as a rusticism, and careful speakers commonly avoided it. When Thomas Sheridan published his “General Dictionary of the English Language” in London in 1780 he actually omitted it from his list of vowels. He had room for an
a
approximating
aw
, as in
hall
, but none for the
a
sounding like
ah
, as in
barn
. He gave the pronunciation of
papa
as if both its
a
’s were that of
pap
, and even ordained the same flat
a
before
r
, as in
car
and
far
. Benjamin Franklin, whose “Scheme for a New Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling” was published in Philadelphia in 1768, was in complete accord with Sheridan. He favored the flat
a
, not only in all the words which now carry it in American, but also in
calm, far, hardly
and even
what
, which last was thus made to rhyme with
hat
. Franklin’s pronunciations were presumably those of the best circles in the London of his time, and it seems likely that they also prevailed in Philadelphia, then the center of American culture. But the broad
a
continued common in the folk-speech of New England, as it was in that of Old England, and in 1780 or thereabout it suddenly became fashionable in Standard London English. How and why this fashion arose is not known, nor is it known what influence it had upon the educated speech of New England. It may be that the New Englanders picked it up, as they picked up so many other English fashions, or it may be that they simply yielded to the folk-speech of their region. Whatever the fact, they were using the broad
a
in many words at the time Noah Webster published his “Dissertations on the English Language” at Boston in 1789. In it he gave
quality, quantity
and
quash
the sound of
a
in
hat
, but he gave
advance, after, ask, balm, clasp
and
grant
the
a
of
arm
. In subsequent editions of “The American Spelling Book” he favored the broad
a
before a final
r
or before
r
followed by a consonant,
e.g., bar, depart
; before (
l
)
m, e.g., embalm
; before a final
s
or
s
followed by a consonant,
e.g., pass, ask
; before
f, e.g., staff, half
; before
th, e.g., path
; before
lv, e.g., salve, calves
; before
n
followed by
ch, s
or
t, e.g., blanch, dance, ant
; in words spelled
au
before
s, e.g., sauce
; in words spelled
au
before
n
followed by
ch, d
or
t, e.g., staunch, jaundice, aunt
; and in a number of other words,
e.g., chamber, slander, gape
.
⁵⁰
He even advocated the broad
a
in
bracelet
, though in his “Dictionary of the English Language Compiled for the Use of the Common
Schools in the United States” (1807) he abandoned it for the flat
a
.

Webster’s immense authority was sufficient to implant the broad
a
firmly in the speech of the Boston area. Between 1830 and 1850, according to C. H. Grandgent,
⁵¹
it ran riot, and was used even in such words as
handsome, matter, apple, caterpillar, pantry, hammer, practical, Saturday
and
satisfaction
. Oliver Wendell Holmes protested against it in “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table” in 1857, but it survived his onslaught. It has been somewhat modified in sound with the passing of the years. Says Grandgent: “The broad
a
of New Englanders, Italianate though it be, is not so broad as that of Old England.… Our
grass
really lies between the
grahs
of a British lawn and the
grass
of the boundless prairies.” In the New England cities, he adds, it has been “shaken by contact with the Irish,” and is now restricted, in the main to

The imprimatur of the Yankee Johnson was not sufficient to establish the Boston
a
outside New England. His rival and bitter critic, Lyman Cobb, whose “Just Standard For Pronouncing the English Language” appeared in 1821, allowed it before
th
and
lv
and in words wherein it appeared as
au
, but ordained the flat
a
in
class, clasp, fast, ask, asp, branch, dance, chaff, raft
and their congeners. Webster’s other great antagonist, Joseph E. Worcester, whose “Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language” appeared in 1830, set up a distinction between the true British broad
a
and the modified New England
a
described above by Grandgent, and frowned upon the former. “His hesitation with respect to words like
ask, dance, chaff
, etc.,” says Krapp, “was due not to the fear that the sound which he advocated might seem too near [the
a
of
hat
], but too near [the
a
of
bard
]. In
other words, the vulgar extreme which was to be avoided was [the latter and not the former].” William Russell, who published a number of popular textbooks during the second quarter of the century, advocated the flat
a
in all words of the
glass, grasp, past, graft, grant, dance, branch, chant, rather
and
bland
classes. By 1850 it was dominant everywhere west of the Berkshires and south of New Haven, save for what Grandgent calls “a little
ah
-spot in Virginia,” and its sound had even got into such proper names as
Alabama
and
Lafayette
.
⁵³
“In the United States beyond the Hudson — perhaps beyond the Connecticut,” says Grandgent, “the flat
a
prevails before
f, s, th
, and
n
.” Nevertheless, the broad
a
has got into a few words, if not many. Those in which it is followed by
lm
I have mentioned. They were once pronounced to rhyme with
ram
and
jam
, but their pronunciation that way has begun to seem provincial and ignorant. Krapp says that the
a
has likewise broadened in
alms, salmon
and
almond
,
⁵⁴
but it is my own observation that this is not yet generally true. The first syllable of
salmon
, true enough, does not quite rhyme with
ham
, but it is nevertheless still very far from
palm
. The broad
a
, by a fashionable affectation, has also appeared in
vase, drama, amen
and
tomato
— in the last case probably helped by the example of Southern speech. This intrusion has been vigorously denounced by an Englishman, Evacustes A. Phipson. He says:

Amen
, with the broad
a
, seems to be making progress. E. W. Howe tells a story of a little girl in Kansas whose mother, on acquiring social aspirations, entered the Protestant Episcopal Church from the Methodist Church. The father remaining behind, the little girl had
to learn to say
amen
with the
a
of
rake
when she went to church with her father and
amen
with the
a
of
car
when she went to church with her mother.
⁵⁶
In Canada, despite the social influence of English usage, the flat
a
has conquered, and along the Canadian-New England border it is actually regarded as a Canadianism, especially in such words as
calm
and
aunt
. The broad
a
, when heard at all, is an affectation, and, as in Boston, is sometimes introduced into words,
e.g., stamp
, which actually have the flat
a
in England. In the United States, save in the Boston area, one never hears it in
gather, lather
and
blather
, and even in Boston it is often abandoned for the flat
a
by speakers who are very careful to avoid the latter in
palm, dance
and
aunt
. Krapp says that it is used in “some words of foreign origin,” notably
lava, data, errata, bas-relief, spa, mirage
and
garage
, but this is certainly not true of the first three, all of which, save exceptionally, have the flat
a
. So has
piano
, though the Italian
i
is preserved, and
pyano
is now only a vulgarism.
Patent
, in American, always has the
a
of
cat
, but in English the
a
of
late
is often heard when the word is used in the sense of a license or monopoly. In England
mater
, a common synonym for
mother
, has the same
a
, but in the American
alma mater
, which is seldom used in England, the second and third
a
’s are that of
bard
, though the first is commonly that of
pal
. In English the second
a
of
apparatus
is always that of
late
, but in the United States it is often that of
cat
. The same difference is to be noted in the pronunciation of
data, gratis, status
and
strata
. In
phalanx
it runs the other way, with the English preferring, for the first syllable, the
a
of
rack
, and Americans that of
mate
. In
radio
the usual American pronunciation shows the
a
of
mate
, but the plain people of New York City apparently prefer the
a
of
rack
, and Alfred E. Smith’s use of it in 1928 attracted nation-wide attention, and inspired some imitation. There were pundits at the time who argued that Al was right, and cited the analogy of
radical
. The English use a broad
a
in the final syllables of
charade
and
promenade
,
but most Americans prefer the
a
of
mate
. In the second syllable of
asphalt
the English always use the
a
of
rack
, but Americans sometimes use the
aw
of
bawl
. In England the
a
of
patriotism
is always the
a
of
rack
, but in the United States it is often that of
late
.
⁵⁷
Larsen and Walker
⁵⁸
say that the latter
a
is used by Americans in
ignoramus, tornado
and
ultimatum
, but I often hear the
a
of
dram
in
ignoramus
, and either that of
rack
or that of
bar
in
tornado
and
ultimatum
. In
radish
the a is sometimes that of
cab
and sometimes a sort of
e
, hard to distinguish from that of
red
. In such proper names as
Alabama, Alaska, Montana, Nevada
and
Colorado
the flat
a
of
has
is often heard, especially in the States themselves, but a broad
a
is certainly not unknown. The usual pronunciation of
again
and
against
gives them a second
a
indistinguishable from the
e
of
hen
, but there is also a spelling pronunciation employing the
a
of lawe. In the years before the Civil War the plain people converted the
a
of
care
into the
a
of
car
in
bear, dare, hair
and
where
, into a short
i
in the verb
can
, into a short
e
in
catch
, and into a long
e
in
care, scarce
and
chair
, thus producing
bar, dar, har, whar, kin, ketch, keer, skeerce
and
cheer
. They flattened the long
a
of
marsh
and omitted the
r
, making the word rhyme with
lash
, and they reduced
sauce
to
sass, saucy
to
sassy
and
because
to becuz or
bacaze
. The
e
of
learn, serve, mercy, certain
and
eternal
became a broad
a
, producing
larn, sarve, marcy, sartin
and
tarnal
; the
a
of
caught
was flattened, producing
catcht
or
ketcht
; and the
a
of
drain
was turned into a long
e
, producing
dreen
. Some of these toyings with
a
survive, but
not all. The rest have been exterminated by the schoolmarm, or forced into exile among the remoter dialects.
⁵⁹