Page:The American language; an inquiry into the development of English in the United States (IA americanlanguage00menc 0).pdf/232

 and machinery, is palpable enough in many familiar situations. "The typical American accent," says Vizetelly, "is often harsh and unmusical, but it sounds all of the letters to be sounded, and slurs, but does not distort, the rest." An American, for example, almost always sounds the first l in fulfill; an Englishman makes the first syllable foo. An American sounds every syllable in extraordinary, literary, military, dysentery, temporary, necessarily, secretary and the other words of the -ary-group; an Englishman never pronounces the a of the penultimate syllable. Kindness, with the d silent, would attract notice in most parts of the United States; in England, according to Jones, the d is "very commonly, if not usually" omitted. Often, in America, not infrequently retains a full t; in England it is actually and officially offen. Try an Englishman and an American with any word ending in -ing, say sporting or ripping. The latter will pronounce the final g; the former will usually omit it. Or with any word having r before a consonant, say card, harbor, lord or preferred. "The majority of Englishmen," says Menner, "certainly do not pronounce the r…; just as certainly the majority of educated Americans pronounce it distinctly." Henry James, visiting the United States after many years of residence in England, was much harassed by this persistent r-sound, which seemed to him to resemble "a sort of morose grinding of the back teeth." So sensitive to 1t did he become that he began to hear it where it was actnally non-existent, save as an occasional barbarism, for example, in Cuba-r, vanilla-r and California-r. He put the blame for it, and for various other departures from the strict