The Americans boldly assert that they speak better English than we do,
and I was rather surprised not to find a statistical table to that
effect in Mr Carey's publication. What I believe the Americans would
imply by the above assertion is that you may travel through all the
United States and find less difficulty in understanding or being
understood, than in some of the counties of England, such as Cornwall,
Devonshire, Lancashire and Suffolk. So far they are correct; but it is
remarkable how very debased the language has become in a short period in
America. There are few provincial dialects in England much less
intelligible than the following. A Yankee girl, who wished to hire
herself out, was asked if the had any followers or sweethearts? After a
little hesitation, she replied, "Well, now, can't exactly say; I bees a
sorter courted and a sorter not; reckon more a sorter yes than a sorter
no." In many points the Americans have to a certain degree obtained
that equality which they profess; and, as respects their language, it
certainly is the case. If their lower classes are more intelligible
than ours, it is equally true that the higher classes do not speak the
language so purely or so classically as it is spoken among the well
educated English. The peculiar dialect of the English counties is kept
up because we are a settled country; the people who are born in a county
live in it, and die in it, transmitting their sites of labour or of
amusement to their descendants, generation after generation, without
change: consequently, the provincialisms of the language become equally
hereditary. Now, in America, they have a dictionary containing many
thousands of words, which, with us, are either obsolete or are
provincialisms, or are words necessarily invented by the Americans.
When the people of England emigrated to the states, they came from every
county in England, and each county brought its provincialisms with it.
These were admitted into the general stock; and were since all collected
and bound up by one Mr Webster. With the exception of a few words
coined for local uses (such as _snags_ and _sawyers_, on the
Mississippi,) I do not recollect a word which I have not traced to be
either a provincialism of some English county, or else to be obsolete
English. There are a few from the Dutch, such as _stoup_, for the porch
of a door, etcetera. I was once talking with an American about
Webster's dictionary, and he observed, "Well now, sir, I understand it's
the only one used in the Court of St James, by the king, queen, and
princesses, and that by royal order."
The upper class of the Americans do not, however, speak or pronounce
English according to our standard; they appear to have no exact rule to
guide them, probably from the want of any intimate knowledge of Greek or
Latin. You seldom hear a derivation from the Greek pronounced
correctly, the accent being generally laid upon the wrong syllable. In
fact, every one appears to be independent, and pronounces just as he
pleases.
But it is not for me to decide the very momentous question, as to which
nation speaks the best English. The Americans generally improve upon
the inventions of others; probably they may have improved upon our
language.
I recollect some one observing how very superior the German language was
to the English, from their possessing so many compound substantives and
adjectives; whereupon his friend replied, that it was just as easy for
us to possess them in England if we pleased, and gave us as an example
an observation made by his old dame at Eaton, who declared that young
Paulet was, without any exception, the most _good-for-nothing-est_, the
most _provoking-people-est_, and the most _poke-about-every-corner-est_
boy she had ever had charge of in her life.
Assuming this principle of improvement to be correct, it must be
acknowledged that the Americans have added considerably to our
dictionary; but, as I have before observed, this being a point of too
much delicacy for me to decide upon, I shall just submit to the reader
the occasional variations, or improvements, as they may be, which met my
ears during my residence in America, as also the idiomatic
peculiarities, and having so done, I must leave him to decide for
himself.
I recollect once talking with one of the first men in America, who was
narrating to me the advantages which might have accrued to him if he had
followed up a certain speculation, when he said, "Sir, if I had done so,
I should not only have _doubled_ and _trebled_, but I should have
_fourbled_ and _fivebled_ my money."
One of the members of congress once said, "What the honourable gentleman
has just asserted I consider as _catamount_ to a denial;"--(catamount is
the term given to a panther or lynx.)
"I presume," replied his opponent, "that the honourable gentleman means
_tantamount_."
"No, sir, I do not mean _tantamount_; I am not so ignorant of our
language, not to be aware that catamount and tantamount are anonymous."
The Americans dwell upon their words when they speak--a custom arising,
I presume, from their cautious, calculating habits; and they have always
more or less of a nasal twang. I once said to a lady, "Why do you drawl
out your words in that way?"
"Well," replied she, "I'd drawl all the way from Maine to Georgia,
rather than _clip_ my words as you English people do."
Many English words are used in a very different sense from that which we
attach to them; for instance: a _clever_ person in America means an
amiable, good-tempered person, and the Americans make the distinction by
saying, I mean English clever.
Our _clever_ is represented by the word _smart_.
The verb _to admire_ is also used in the East, instead of the verb _to
like_.
"Have you ever been at Paris?"
"No; but I should _admire_ to go."