Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Questions at Issue in Our English Speech
Perhaps the true explanation of this variation be tween British and American usage is found in the fact that America is a new country, and hence tra dition here does not carry such binding authority as in the Old World. There the pronunciation has been handed down by word of mouth, from generation to generation, among a people to the manner born. Here conditions are much altered. America has a large foreign-born element, and consequently many of the people cannot claim English as their native tongue and are compelled to learn it as a foreign language. Hence they rely, in a measure, upon the spelling to indicate the pronunciation of English, making it a study for the eye quite as much as for the ear. If in democratic America the habits of speech were as thoroughly established as they are in aristocratic England then we should speak the Eng lish language without any reference to its orthogra phy. But political conditions have modified our American English somewhat, causing it to vary slightly from British usage. A rise in social rank.
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