I must, however,
most vehemently disclaim any intention of suggesting that English
pronunciation is authoritative and correct. My own tongue is
neither American English nor English English, but Irish English;
so I am as nearly impartial in the matter as it is in human nature
to be. Besides, there is no standard English pronunciation any
more than there is an American one: in England every county has
its catchwords, just as no doubt every state in the Union has. I
cannot believe that the pioneer American, for example, can spare
time to learn that last refinement of modern speech, the exquisite
diphthong, a farfetched combination of the French eu and the
English e, with which a New Yorker pronounces such words as world,
bird &c. I have spent months without success in trying to achieve
glibness with it.
To Felix Drinkwater also I owe some apology for implying that all
his vowel pronunciations are unfashionable. They are very far from
being so. As far as my social experience goes (and I have kept
very mixed company) there is no class in English society in which
a good deal of Drinkwater pronunciation does not pass unchallenged
save by the expert phonetician. This is no mere rash and ignorant
jibe of my own at the expense of my English neighbors. Academic
authority in the matter of English speech is represented at
present by Mr. Henry Sweet, of the University of Oxford, whose
Elementarbuch des gesprochenen Engliach, translated into his
native language for the use of British islanders as a Primer of
Spoken English, is the most accessible standard work on the
subject.
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