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From Franklin to Lowell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

C. H. Grandgent
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Extract

This passage from Addison, reproduced, in a slightly modified version of the American Dialect Society's alphabet, from a phonetic transcription by Benjamin Franklin himself, may be taken as a sample of Franklin's pronunciation. Angel was more commonly ændgel in the 18th century, and chamber, danger had the same vowel; êndƌel, tʃêmbǝr, dêudƌǝr, according to Noah Webster, were less elegant. The use of ði before consonants as well as vowels is noteworthy, and may be due to carelessness. For tû = to, Franklin also said tō. Bɐzǝm was perfectly good in his day.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , 1899 , pp. 207 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1899

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References

Note 1 in page 208 Die Aussprache des Englischen nach den deutsch-englischen Grammatiken vor 1750, Marburg, 1886.

Note 1 in page 209 “ Zur Lautlehre der englischen Grammatiken des XVII. und XVIII. Jahrhunderts,” in Phonetische Studien, ii (1888), 64.

Note 2 in page 209 Zur englischen Aussprache von 1650-1750, Kassel, 1889.

Note 3 in page 209 Die englische Aussprache bis zum Jahre 1750 nach dänischen und schwedischen Zeugnissen, Göteborg, 1895.

Note 4 in page 209 Untersuchungen zur englischen Lautgeschichte, Strassburg, 1896.

Note 5 in page 209 On Early English Pronunciation, London, 1869-89.

Note 6 in page 209 A History of English Sounds, Oxford, 1888.

Note 7 in page 209 Works of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Jared Sparks, Boston, 1840, vi, 295.

Note 1 in page 213 Laugh, pass, path, etc.

Note 2 in page 213 Aunt, branch, can't, chance, etc.

Note 3 in page 213 Calm, salmon, etc.

Note 1 in page 214 Launch, laundry, haunt, etc.

Note 2 in page 214 This is the only instance of a in are that I have found before 1830. The word is regularly êr or ær in the 18th century. Franklin always writes it er.

Note 1 in page 218 Dearborn, 1795, condemns “coard” for cord. Hale, 1799, has ô in four, hoar, hoard, store, worn, and o (!) in forge, horse, snort. Willard has ô in roar, etc., but, very curiously, o in board.

Note 1 in page 220 Also, alter, fault, scald, etc.

Note 2 in page 220 Cloth, lost, often, wash, etc.

Note 3 in page 220 Bother, novel, rosin, was, etc.

Note 4 in page 220 Lang, on, romp, etc.

Note 5 in page 220 Dog, God, squab, etc.

Note 6 in page 220 Doll, horrid, quarrel, swallow, etc.

Note 7 in page 220 The earlier 18th century pronunciation was fot, vat.

Note 1 in page 221 With Smart, “ open ” means close, and “ shut,” open.

Note 1 in page 222 A sound resembling ë, probably accented, must have existed in the dialect of some speakers at a much earlier date. Bolling (cited by Holthausen in his Englische Aussprache), a Norwegian, whose Fuldkommen Engelske Grammatica was published in Copenhagen in 1678, says that first, thirst have Danish ø, while church, nurse have u. Sterpin, a Frenchman living in Denmark, brought out, about 1665 or 1670, a French-English-Danish grammar called Institutiones glotticœ, in which ir is said to be equivalent to Danish ør: see Holthausen in the Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen u. Lit., xcix, 3-4. See also Sweet, History of English Sounds, pp. 264-5.

Note 1 in page 223 Use, hue, etc.

Note 1 in page 224 Beauty, few, Gulick, cue, muse, pew, view, etc.

Note 2 in page 224 Lure, rheum, sue, sure, yew, resume, juice, etc.

Note 3 in page 224 Due, new, tune, thews, etc.

Note 1 in page 230 Ben Jonson's English Grammar, 1640, says that r is “sounded firme in the beginning of the words, and more liquid in the middle, and ends ”—a statement that lends itself to various interpretations. It indicates, at any rate, a difference in the sound of r according to its position.

Note 1 in page 231 See Sweet's Primer of Phonetics, Oxford, 1890, § 211.

Note 2 in page 231 I have noted this pronunciation in nearly all the Oxford men I have met. It is occasionally heard in America.