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The American Language Study Guide

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by H. L. Mencken
About 122 pages (36,636 words)
The American Language Summary

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Chapter 2.6 Summary

It is difficult to determine, says Mencken, the exact pronunciation of classical Latin, as every original speaker of Latin is long gone. However, he finds what Wilhelm Crossen "did for" the pronunciation of Latin is what Sweet did for the pronunciation of English...yet, he regrets, no one has come close to doing the same for American. With virtually no literature to help in this regard either, the writer offers examples of existing speech as it has been passed to and adopted by those living in the region. He explains the Bostonian broad a, for instance, is erroneous - having been unbrokenly passed down from the first Bostonians and being authoritatively distinguished from the pronunciation of the same a sound throughout the rest of the country. While the rest of the world - of.....

This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 448 words. This study guide contains 36,636 words (approx. 122 pages at 300 words per page).

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The American Language from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.

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