[lit-ideas] Fanny Kemble's Pronunciation Guide
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:20:09 EDT
Some passages from "The Story of English"
"White English has been influenced by Black Enlgish. Whites often resent
that. It must be confessed, to the shame of the White population of USA that
they perpetuate many of these pronunciations in common with their Negro
dependents. There has never been any dialect like that in England. In most
places of
the USA, if one happened to be talking to a native with one's eyes shut, it
would be impossible to say whether or Negro or a White person were responding."
"Unfortunately, the Whites learn from the Negroes to speak broken English,
and in spite of losing much time in UNLEARNING ungrammatical phrases,
well-educated persons retain some of them all of their lives."
"Whites were often unnumbered by the Black slaves. Furthermore, all the
nursing -- as any reader of American literature knows -- was done by Blacks.
As
early as the mid-eighteenth century it was reported that, "the better sort, in
this country, particularly, consign their children to the care of
Negroes...""
The authors go on to quote from the Diaries of Fanny Kemble, the English
actress who married a slave owner.
Fanny Kemble reports with great alarm that her son was beginning to pick up
the local speech, described by her as "the thick Negro speech of the locals."
She writes:
"The children of the slave owners, brought among
them (the slaves), acquire their Negro mode of
talking -- slavish speech surely it is -- and it is
distinctly perceptible in the utterances of all
Americans, particularly women, whose avocations,
taking them less from home, are less favourable
to their throwing off this ignoble trick of
pronunciation than the varied occupation and
the more extended and promiscuous business
relations of men."
"Not all boys were sent to White schools. The reason for the acquisition of
Black English are many. One, among children, is simply imitation. Fanny
Kemble wrote of her four-year-old son that:
"Apparently the Negro jargon has commended itself
as euphonious to his infantile ears, and he is now
treating me to the MOST LUDICROUS and accurate
imitations of it every time he opens his mouth. OF
COURSE I SHALL NOT ALLOW THIS TO BECOME
A HABIT. This is the way Americans acquire the
thick and inelegant pronunciation which distinguishes
their utterances from us in England, and I have no
desire that my son should adorn his mother tongue
with either PECULIARITY.
But then, who _was_ Fanny Kemble?
Cheers,
JL
ps. Thanks, Stone, I changed the size to 12. Hope it helps.
J. L. Speranza, Esq.
Town:
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Country:
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jls@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
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