American Language (65 page)

There are some differences between the pronunciation of
e
in English and American, but not many. The English use a long
e
, like that of
bee
, in the first syllable of
evolution
, which is always short
in American. They also prefer a long
e
in
epoch
, but in the United States it is often short. Contrariwise, the English use a short
e
in
penalize, lever
and
egoist
, whereas most Americans prefer a long one. The English are always careful to make the first syllable of
seamstress sem
and that of
cleanly clen
, but Americans commonly stick to the
e
of the stems. In the United States a spelling pronunciation often appears in
pretty
, making the first syllable rhyme with
set
; it always rhymes with
sit
in English. The use of the long
e
in
deaf
, though historically very respectable and ardently advocated by Noah Webster,
⁶⁰
has disappeared from cultivated American speech; it persists, however, in the vulgate. In the same way the
i
-sound, as in
sit
, has disappeared from
get, yet, general, steady, chest
and
instead
; Benjamin Franklin defended it, but now even the vulgate is losing it: This pronunciation, according to Menner,
⁶¹
was correct in Seventeenth Century England, and perhaps down to the middle of the next century. It is probable that the colonists clung to such disappearing usages longer than the English. The latter, according to Webster, were unduly responsive to illogical fashions set by the exquisites of the court and by popular actors. He blames Garrick, in particular, for many innovations, most of them not followed in the colonies. But Garrick was surely not responsible for the displacement of
mercy
by
marcy
, which Webster ascribed somewhat lamely to the fact that the letter
r
is called
ar:
he proposed to dispose of it by changing the
ar
to
er
. In his time the
a
of
lame
was generally heard in
egg, peg, leg
and so on, but it too is now confined to the vulgate, as is the
a
of
bag
in
keg
. As Krapp shows, the neutral
e
that has taken its place, and toward which all our vowels seem to be tending,
⁶²
shows signs of itself disappearing. This is particularly
noticeable, in American, in such words as
moral, quarrel
and
real
, which become
mor’l, quar’l
and
reel
, each a single syllable. In the vulgar speech this neutral
e
is also dropped from other words, notably
poem, diary, violet
and
diamond
, which become
pome, di’ry, vi’let
and
di’amond
. Even in Standard American it grows shadowy in the second syllables of
fertile, hostile, docile, servile, agile, reptile
, etc. In Standard English these words are pronounced with the second syllables rhyming with
vile
, but the English use a short
i
in
fragile
and
facile
. They also use it in
senile
, which commonly shows the long
i
in American. The long
e
-sound in
creek
and
creature
is maintained in Standard American, but changed to the short
i
of
sit
in the vulgate.
Sleek
has divided into two words,
slick
and
sleek
, the former signifying cunning and ingratiating, and the latter referring especially to appearance. Of late there has been a strong tendency to abandon the old
e
-sound in such terms as
bronchitis
and
appendicitis
for an
ai
-sound, as in
pie
and
buy
; this is a senseless affectation, but it seems to be making progress. A contrary movement to abandon the old
ai
-sound in
iodine, quinine
, etc., for an
e
-sound, as in
sleep
, has better support in etymology, but is apparently less popular.
Chlorine
and
vaccine
are always pronounced with the
e
-sound, but
iodine
continues to be
iodyne, strychnine
is still usually
strychnyne
, and
kin-een
for
quinine
still sounds strange. In two other familiar words the
ai
-sound has been supplanted in American: in
sliver
by the short
i
of
liver
, and in
farina
by an
e
-sound. Both have the
ai
-sound in Standard English.
Dynasty
, in American, has a first syllable like
dine
, but in English it is
din. Isolate
is always
eye-solate
in English, but sometimes it is
iss-solate
in American.
Tribunal
and
simultaneous
have the
y
-sound in American, the short
i
in English.
Misogynist
has the short
i
in American but the long one of
mice
in English.
Been
, in American, is almost always
bin
or
ben; bean
never appears save as a conscious affectation. But in England
bean
is preferred.

Webster, in his “Dissertations on the English Language,” favored the pronunciation of
either
and
neither
as
ee-ther
and
nee-ther
, and so did most of the other authorities of the time, whether American or English. But the pronunciation of the words as
eye-ther
and
nye-ther
has been common in New England for a century or more, and at an earlier date they had been pronounced
ay-ther
and
nay-ther
, a usage still surviving in the English of Ireland. How the fashion
for the
eye
-pronunciation arose is not known, but it was raging on both sides of the ocean by the middle of the Nineteenth Century, and is still in force. It was resisted stoutly by all the contemporary American virtuosi of language, including Edward S. Gould, W. D. Whitney and Richard Grant White. Said Gould in the middle 60’s:

Whitney, in 1867, admitted the
eye-ther
and
nye-ther
were spreading in the United States, but denounced them as “the deliberate choice of persons who fancy that there is something more
recherché
, more English” in them.
⁶⁴
Seven years later he called the fashion for them “a relentless and senseless infection, which can only be condemned and ought to be stoutly opposed and put down,” and said that those Americans who had succumbed to it “ought to realize with shame the folly of which they have been guilty, and reform.”
⁶⁵
White, who was ordinarily something of an Anglomaniac, and strongly favored the broad
a
, nevertheless declared in 1870 that there was “no authority, either of analogy or of the best speakers, for
eye-ther
and
nye-ther
,” and called their use “an affectation, and in this country, a copy of a second-rate British affectation.”
⁶⁶
But they continued to make headway in both England and the United States. The Oxford Dictionary, in 1897, gave the preference to
ee-ther
and
nee-ther
, but admitted that
eye-ther
and
nye-ther
were “somewhat more prevalent in educated English speech.” H. W. Fowler, in “A Dictionary of Modern English Usage” (1926), predicted that they would “probably prevail,” though adding that they were “not more correct” than
ee-ther
and
nee-ther
. “Webster’s New International” (1934) held out for the latter, but gave
eye-ther
and
nye-ther
as variants. It used to be believed that they came into use in
England on the accession of George I, who, speaking English badly, gave the diphthong its German value, but Dr. Louise Pound has demonstrated that this theory was nonsense.
⁶⁷

Hilaire Belloc has said that “every vowel sound without exception” has taken in the United States “some different value from what it has” in England.
⁶⁸
This is an exaggeration, but there is sufficient truth in it to give it a certain plausibility. Even the
a
of such common words as
cab, back
and
hand
differs in the two countries: when Englishmen speak them rapidly they often sound, to American ears, like
keb, beck
and
hend
. In the United States, in keeping with our generally more precise habits of speech, they are pronounced more clearly. The differences between the English
o
in
rock
and the American
o
in the same word have long engaged phonologists. The former is described by Larsen and Walker
⁶⁹
as “a lightly rounded vowel, not usually found in General American Speech, though it is close to the short form of the American
aw
heard in the opening syllables of
authentic
and
autocracy
”; the latter is “the shortened
ah
-sound usually heard in
what, not
, as pronounced in General American Speech.” They go on:

Yet a third sound is sometimes heard in these
wa
words — it is a downright
aw
. One encounters it in
water, wash, swamp, swan
and
squalid
, which become, roughly,
wawter, wawsh, swawmp, swawn
and
squawlid
. It also appears in
God
, which may be variously
God
(rhyming with
nod
),
Gahd
or
Gawd
. The first of the three, I believe, is commonly regarded as the most formal, and I have often noticed that a speaker who says
Gawd
in his ordinary discourse will switch to
God
(or maybe
Gahd
) when he wants to show reverence. Miss Sarah T. Barrows of the State Teachers College at San José, Calif., once determined the practice of 268 university students, all born in Iowa, in the pronunciation of
watch, water
and
wash
. She found that 156 preferred the
ah
-sound in
watch
, 96 the
aw
-sound and 16 the English
o
-sound. In
water
their preferences ran 128, 80 and 80, and in
wash
165, 58 and 45.
⁷⁰
In the Eighteenth Century, as Krapp’s researches show,
⁷¹
it was not unheard of for the
a
of
care
to be used in such words. Thus, the poets of the time rhymed
war
not only with
care
, but also with
air, dare, glare, forbear, spare, share, blare, snare, despair, bear, bare
and
prepare
. But the rhymes of poets are not always to be trusted, and it is to be noted that those examined by Krapp also occasionally rhymed
war
with
car, mar, far, jar, scar
and
tar
. In any case, it began to be rhymed with
more
after the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. At the present time its
a
is substantially equivalent to the
o
of
story
, but
ah
is also heard. In words containing
au, aw
or
ou
the sound is usually
aw
, but in the vulgar speech a flat
a
like that of
land
gets into
haunt, jaundice
and sometimes
launch. Laundry
may be
lawndry, lahndry
or
londry. Aunt
, of course, is
ant
to the plain people everywhere, save in the Boston area and parts of the South.

Usage in the pronunciation of
u
still differs widely in the United States. Two sounds, that of
oo
in
goose
and that of
u
in
bush
, are used by different speakers in the same word. The
oo
-sound prevails in
aloof, boot, broom, food, groom, proof, roof, rood, room, rooster, root, soon, spook, spoon
and
woof
, and the
u
-sound in
butcher, cooper, hoof, hoop, nook, rook
and
soot
, but there are educated Americans who employ the
oo
-sound in
coop, hoof
and
hoop
. In
hooves
and
rooves
I have heard both sounds.
Rooves
seems to be extinct in the written speech as the plural of
roof
, but it certainly survives in spoken American. In words of the
com-class
, save
company
, Americans substitute
ah
for the
u
used by Englishmen; even
compass
often shows it. So do
constable
and
conjure
. The English are far more careful with the shadowy
y
preceding
u
in words of
the
duty
class than Americans. The latter retain it in the initial position and in the medial position when unstressed, but omit it in almost all other situations.
Nyew, nyude, dyuke, Tyuesday, enthyusiasm, styupid
and
syuit
would seem affectations in most parts of the United States.
⁷²
The schoolmarm still battles valiantly for
dyuty
, but in vain. In 1912 the Department of Education of New York City warned all the municipal high-school teachers to combat the
oo
-sound
⁷³
but it is doubtful that one pupil in a hundred was thereby induced to insert the
y
in
induced
. In
figure
, however, Americans retain the
y
-sound, whereas the English drop it. Noah Webster was violently against it in all situations. The English lexicographer, John Walker, had argued for it in his “Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language,” 1791, but Webster’s prestige, while he lived, remained so high in some quarters that he carried the day, and the older professors at Yale, it is said, continued to use
natur
down to 1839. In the South a
y
is sometimes inserted before
a, i
or
o
, especially following
k, e.g.
, in
cyard, Cyarter, kyind, cyow
. This intrusion of the
y
was formerly common in New England also, and as Krapp says, “is not yet wholly extinct.” In
lieutenant
the Englishman pronounces the first syllable
lef
or
lev
; the American makes it
loo
. White says that the prevailing American pronunciation is relatively recent. “I never heard it,” he reports, “in my boyhood.”
⁷⁴
He was born in New York in 1821. Nevertheless, it was advocated by Walker in 1793. The word was originally French, and
loo
comes closer to the original pronunciation than
lef
or
lev
. How the latter form arose is uncertain.
⁷⁵