A History of English Language

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A history of the english language 352 Webster quotes Sheridan with approval to the effect that “A good articulation consists in giving every letter in a syllable its due proportion of sound, according to the most approved custom of pronouncing it; and in making such a distinction, between syllables, of which words are composed, that the ear shall without difficulty acknowledge their number.” And he adds the specific injunction, “Let words be divided as they ought to be pronounced clus-ter, hab-it, nos-tril, bish-op, and the smallest child cannot mistake a just pronunciation.” In the light of such precept and evidence of its practice, and considering the popularity of spelling bees among those of a former generation, it seems certain that not a little influence on American pronunciation is to be traced to the old blue-backed spelling book. 249. Pronunciation. The earliest changes in the English language in America, distinguishing it from the language of the mother country, were in the vocabulary. These have already been mentioned. From the time when the early colonists came, however, divergence in pronunciation began gradually to develop. This has been due in part to changes that have occurred here but has resulted still more from the fact that the pronunciation of England has undergone further change and that a variety of southern English has come to be recognized as the English received standard. At the present time American pronunciation shows certain well-marked differences from English use. 25 Perhaps the most noticeable of these differences is in the vowel sound in such words as fast, path, grass, dance, can’t, half. At the end of the eighteenth century southern England began to change from what is called a flat a to a broad a in these words, that is from a sound like the a in man to one like the a in father. The change affected words in which the vowel occurred before f, sk, sp, st, ss, th, and n followed by certain consonants. In parts of New England the same change took place, but in most other parts of the country the old sound was preserved, and fast, path, etc., are pronounced with the vowel of pan. In some speakers there is a tendency to employ an intermediate vowel, halfway between the a of pan and father, but the “flat a” must be regarded as the typical American pronunciation. Next to the retention of the flat a, the most noticeable difference between English and American pronunciation is in the treatment of the r. In the received pronunciation of England this sound has disappeared except before vowels. It is not heard when it occurs before another consonant or at the end of a word unless the next word begins with a vowel. In America, eastern New England and some of the South follow the English practice, but in the Middle 25 See Eilert Ekwall, American and British Pronunciation (Uppsala, Sweden, 1946), and J.C. Wells, Accents of English (3 vols., Cambridge, UK, 1982).
The english language in america 353 THE AMERICAN SPELLING BOOK OF NOAH WEBSTER (see § 248)
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A History of the English Language F
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A History of the English Language F
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Contents Preface viii 1 English Pre
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Preface Before the present author e
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PHONETIC SYMBOLS [a] in father [a]
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1 English Present and Future 1. The
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English present and future 3 4. The
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English present and future 5 increa
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English present and future 7 French
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English present and future 9 learne
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English present and future 11 words
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English present and future 13 our t
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English present and future 15 World
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The Indo-European family of languag
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Old english 39 extended beyond a pr
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Old english 41 hundred towns, with
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Old english 43 whom almost certainl
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Old english 45 36. The Names “Eng
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Old english 47 39. The Dialects of
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Old english 49 fæger (fair), or s
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Old english 51 present the inflecti
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Old english 53 While the ordinary m
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Old english 55 The origin of the de
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Old english 57
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Old english 59 ‘proudly’, and t
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Old english 61 a saddle, the shield
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Old english 63 people. The literatu
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Old english 65 history of the rest
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4 Foreign Influences on Old English
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Foreign influences on old english 6
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The norman conquest and the subject
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The reestablishment of english, 120
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Middle english 147 and adjective ma
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Middle english 149 is clear that th
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Middle english 151 While an occasio
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Middle english 153 mations has been
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Middle english 155 the reality of M
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Middle english 157 the French words
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Middle english 159 brandish, vanqui
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Middle english 161 all the words in
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Middle english 163 whether found in
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Middle english 165 English vocabula
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Middle english 167 English word occ
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Middle english 169 French: forcover
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Middle english 171 142. Latin Borro
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Middle english 173 far this affecta
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Middle english 175 native populatio
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Middle english 177 the Middle Engli
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Middle english 179 148. The Rise of
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Middle english 181 the precise form
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Middle english 183 leef or tweyne,
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Middle english 185 phonology and mo
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8 The Renaissance, 1500-1650 152. C
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 189 bein
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 191 disc
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 193 well
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 195 That
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 197 cent
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 199 I la
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 201 expr
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 203 they
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 205 your
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 207 160.
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 209 anac
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 211 word
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 213 seve
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 215 of t
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 217 rein
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 219 heap
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 221 occu
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 223 Such
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 227 sugg
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 229 It m
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 231 spea
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 235 good
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The renaissance, 1500-1650 237 Sixt
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The appeal to authority, 1650-1800
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10 The Nineteenth Century and After
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The nineteenth century and after 28
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Page 399 and 400: APPENDIX A Specimens of the Middle
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Appendix B 403 more he tooke God so
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Appendix B 405 words, whose Etymolo
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Index 407 Alabama, 354 Albanian bra
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Index 409 Bacon, Francis, 261 Bacon
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Brakelond, Jocelyn de, 122, 124 Bra
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Index 413 Chamberlain, John, 209, 4
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Index 415 words from, 303 Dalby, D.
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Index 417 East Africa, English lang
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Index 419 Flügel, Ewald, 286 Folio
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Index 421 Goodenough, Ward H., 40 G
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Hill, A.A., 402 Hill, David, 72-73
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Index 425 Jackson, Kenneth, 72 Jaes
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Index 427 Lance, Donald M., 407 Lan
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Index 429 Lycian, 26 Lydgate, John,
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Index 431 Milton, John, 183, 224, 2
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Index 433 Nunnally, Thomas, 407 Nyn
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Peterborough Chronicle, 166 Peterho
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Index 437 Quirk, Randolph, 56, 316
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St. Mary’s Abbey, York, 147 Sallu
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Index 441 Society of Antiquaries, 2
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Index 443 Scandinavian, influence o
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Index 445 Verb-adverb combinations,
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Index 447 Woodbine, George E., 157
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A History of English Language

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