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 English speakers - was saying the word father or...