AMERICA’S LANGUAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 245, 14 September 1929, Page 10

AMERICA’S LANGUAGE

PROSPECT OF EXTINCTION. AN ATLAS OF DIALECTS. The American language is doomed, in the opinion of a majority of titty university professors, who recently gathered at Yale to plan a nationwide examination of American use of the English language. They found they disagreed so much that they dispersed without holding a public session. A monumental atlas of American dialects is contemplated, to identify the different ways of speaking in the United States. It will map the regions where it is customary to speak of a bucket, rather than a pail; to use chemist , for druggist, dock for wharf, and so on. It will also delimit sectors where the expression “ain’t” is not a sign of vulgarity. Dialect differences in American speech are threatened with extinction by the “talkies” and radio broadcasts. Tho latter have achieved a remarkable improvement in English in the last two years. The “talkies” show a strong trend for correct English, as far as shiploads of elocution teachers from England can make them. Hollywood is fast becoming an English city. Therefore, the atlas of dialects must be hurried, or philology will be left without a proper record of American speech.