H. L. Mencken

Name: The American Language — The Vowels
Author: H. L. Mencken

The American Language — The Vowels (1919)

Summary

“The American Language — The Vowels”, published in 1919, is a work by H. L. Mencken. It explores elements such as pronunciation, the United States and Krapp.

Quotes from The American Language — The Vowels (H. L. Mencken)

H. L. Mencken, The American Language — The Vowels (1919)

“ The majority of the better sort of music-teachers in the United States are Continental Europeans, chiefly Germans, and no doubt they teach their pupils to say piahno as they teach them the correct Continental pronunciations of such words as scherzo, lied and ètude. The introduction of the broad a into drama is a pure affectation, and first showed itself, I believe, at the beginning of the heavily self-conscious movement which culminated in the organization of the Drama League of America, a society largely composed of college professors and social pushers. ”

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Source: Wikisource

H. L. Mencken, The American Language — The Vowels (1919)

“ 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 is always pronounced with the e-sound, but iodine continues to be iodyne, 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. Been, in America, almost always is bin; bean never appears save as a conscious affectation. ”

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Source: Wikisource

H. L. Mencken, The American Language — The Vowels (1919)

“ In courteous the English insert an o-sound, making the first syllable rhyme with fort; Americans rhyme it with hurt. In brusque the English give the first syllable an oo-sound; Americans rhyme it with tusk. In clerk, as everyone knows, the English change the e into a, and make the word rhyme with lark; in the United States it rhymes with lurk. Finally, there is lieutenant. The Englishman pronounces the first syllable left; the American invariably makes it loot. White says that the prevailing American pronunciation is relatively recent. ”

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Source: Wikisource

H. L. Mencken, The American Language — The Vowels (1919)

“ 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 squirrel, syrup and stirrup class Americans commonly substitute a u-sound for the e-sound used by Englishmen, and squirrel becomes a monosyllable, squr’l. In words of the com class, save company, Americans substitute a broad a for the u used by Englishmen; even compass often shows it. The English are far more careful with the shadowy y preceding u in words of the duty class than Americans. ”

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Source: Wikisource

H. L. Mencken, The American Language — The Vowels (1919)

“ The use of the long e in deaf, though ardently advocated by Noah Webster, has almost disappeared from cultivated speech; it persists, however, in the vulgate, and is noted in Chapter IX. In the same way the i-sound, as in sit, has disappeared from get, yet, chest and instead; even the vulgate is losing it. So, again, the old ai-sound, as in laid, has vanished from egg, peg, leg and their cognates, though here the vulgate preserves it. As Krapp shows, the neutral e, toward which all our vowels seem to be tending, [5] shows signs of itself disappearing. ”

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Source: Wikisource

H. L. Mencken, The American Language — The Vowels (1919)

“ Here, as Krapp observes, there is a considerable variation in usage, even in the same speaker. The man who uses the first a in God may use the au-sound in dog. I believe that the former is generally looked upon as more formal. I have often noticed that a speaker who puts the au-sound into God in his ordinary profane discourse, will switch to the purer a-sound when he wants to show reverence. The broad a in father seems to have very little influence upon cognate words. ”

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Source: Wikisource

H. L. Mencken, The American Language — The Vowels (1919)

“ So with the first syllable of hallelujah, though the last a is always broad.↑ Krapp says (The Pronunciation of Standard English in America, p. 82) that he also hears this a-sound in project, process, produce and provost, but it is my observation that they are nearly always given a true o-sound. Prohduce is surely commoner than prahduce, and prohject is commoner than prawject. But problem, prospect, proverb, product and progress undoubtedly have the a-sound of father. ”

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Source: Wikisource

H. L. Mencken, The American Language — The Vowels (1919)

“ Its intrusion into tomato has been vigorously denounced by an Englishman, Evacustes A. Phipson. It is really distressing, he says, to a cultivated Briton visiting America to find people there who follow what they suppose to be the latest London mannerism, regardless of accuracy. ”

H. L. Mencken

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Quotes from The American Language — The Vowels (H. L. Mencken)

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