worked consistently toward that ideal. At the time the association was formed, there were but few communities in America where good books were to be had for the asking. Through efficient administration and improvement in the methods of cataloguing and keeping the books available for use, the association has done much to win the gratitude of all who have occasion to consult books in libraries anywhere in the country. CHAPTER XX THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE What Is English?—The Dialects of Great Britain-American EnglishVariations Within America-Four Dialectal Groups-New EnglandYankee Dialect-The Middle States-The South-Negro Dialect-The West-The Dialect Poem and Story-Foreign Influences—The Social Melting-Pot-Standardization of the Language-Our Common Heri tage. 1. What Is English ?—When the Angles and Saxons settled in the island of Britain they brought with them a variety of dialects. After the lapse of more than fourteen centuries there is still a wide degree of variation in British speech. The Oxford don does not speak like the London cockney; nor does the Lincolnshire farmer talk like the yokels of Wessex. Scholars have classified nine groups of dialect in Scotland, three in Ireland, and thirty in England. Readers of Barrie and Stevenson will become familiar with the northern groups; readers of George Eliot, Blackmore, and Hardy soon learn to recognize the peculiarities of the speech of Warwickshire, Dartmoor, and Wessex. Tennyson's "Northern Farmer" speaks thus: Wheer 'asta beän saw long and meä liggin' 'ere aloän? Noorse? thoort nowt o' a noorse: whoy, Doctor's abeän an' agoän: In the Dorsetshire poems of William Barnes we read a different language: Vorgi'e me, Jenny, do! an rise As for London, Mr. George Bernard Shaw in Captain Brassbound's Conversion introduces a character who has had a London School Board education and some practice as a curbstone orator, but whose speech would have to be translated to be made intelligible to most Americans: Bless y'r awt, y' cawnt be a pawrit naradys. Waw, the aw seas is wuss pleest nor Piccadilly Suckus. If aw was to do orn thet there Hetlentic Howcean the things aw did as a bwoy in the Waterloo Rowd, awd ev maw air cat afore aw could turn maw ed. Pawrit be blaowed! —awskink yr pawdn, gavner. (Bless your heart, you can't be a pirate nowadays. Why, the high seas are worse policed than Piccadilly Circus. If I was to do on the Atlantic Ocean the things I did as a boy in the Waterloo Road, I'd have my hair cut before I could turn my head. Pirate be blowed !—asking your pardon, governor.) England is a small country and the United States is relatively large, but we must not forget that linguistically Portland, Maine, and Portland, Oregon, are not so far apart as Lincolnshire and Dorsetshire. 2. American English. Our vernacular use of the English language varies to some extent from that of the welleducated Englishman. Such words as oasis, squalor, and schedule, although used in both countries, are not pronounced alike. Certain other familiar words look queer to Americans in such British spellings as waggon, kerb, storey, toffy, gaol, pyjamas, tyre, cyder, cheque. We usually drop the unnecessary u in such words as honour, labour, and colour, as well as the unnecessary e in developement and judgement. The differences in vocabulary are more important. About 200 words that are familiar in daily American speech would have to be "translated" for an Englishman. The following are the most interesting variations: However, the list is rather short and offers no serious difficulties to the international traveller. There is more ground for objection to such American coinages as boob, bunco, graft, or jitney, and to such combinations as joy-ride, rubber-neck, rake-off, or show-down. 3. Variations Within America.-There are variations in pronunciation that characterize different social groups in various parts of our country. A Harvard college professor has a vocabulary and a standard of pronunciation that do not correspond to those of the working man in Cambridge. The New York banker does not talk like the East Side newsboy. A Chicago preacher will not use the language of a Chicago policeman. A judge in San Francisco will charge a jury in words that the jury itself would not always use. Yet there is a sectional variation as well as a social variation. We must remember that the Harvard professor, the New York banker, the Chicago preacher, and the San Francisco judge may all represent types that have enjoyed educational opportunities, but their speech will vary to some extent. In certain parts of our country the broad sound of a in half, aunt, afternoon, and tomato, or the eye sound in either and neither would be natural, in other parts it would seem affected. The pronunciation of vase has been made the subject of much humorous poetry. There is such close communication nowadays in our country that former sectional peculiarities have become more widespread. New Englanders are not alone guilty of the Yankee nasal twang; the New Yorkers' fondness for rendering girl, third, and work, as goil, thoid, and work is spreading; Philadelphia is no longer unique in reducing when, where, and while to an unaspirated wen, wair, and wile. The South has no monopoly on the dropping of final r from such words as door and floor; nor is the West distinctive in adding a final r to idea and vanilla. In general there are four important dialectal groups apparent in the common speech of our country. These find their way into literature mainly in the effort of the writer |