>But then, who _was_ Fanny Kemble? a British actress who married an American slaveowner and became an abolitionist, and supported the North in the Civil War. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1569.html Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK ----- Original Message ----- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 3:20 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Fanny Kemble's Pronunciation Guide 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: Calle Arenales 2021, Piso 5, St. 8, La Recoleta C1124AAE, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Tel. 54 11 4824 4253 Fax 54 221 425 9205 Country: St. Michael Hall, Calle 58, No. 611, La Plata B1900 BPY Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Tel. 54 221 425 7817 Fax 54 221 425 9205 http://www.stmichaels.com.ar jls@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx jlsperanza@xxxxxxx http://www.netverk/~jls.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ See what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage.