I had not then noticed that the
American pronunciation of "Dewey" is "Dooey," and that the liquid "yoo"
is very seldom heard in America. In the course of the five minutes I
spent in the Supreme Court at Washington, I heard the Chief Justice of
the United States make this one remark: "That, sir, is not
_constitootional_." To our ears this "oo" has an old-fashioned ring,
like that of the "ee" in "obleeged;" but to call it wrong is absurd, and
to find it ridiculous is provincial. Very possibly it can be proved that
had Shakespeare used the word at all, he would have said
"constitootional;" but that would make the "oo" neither better nor worse
in my eyes. There always have been, and always will be, changing
fashions in pronunciation; and the Americans have as good a right to
their fashion as we to ours. Fifty years hence, perhaps, our grandsons
will be saying "constitootional," and theirs "constityootional." I
confess that, in point of abstract sonority, I prefer the "yoo" to the
dry "oo;" but that, again, is a pure matter of taste. If Americans
choose to say,
"From morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dooey eve,
A summer's day."
I am perfectly willing that they should do so, reserving always my own
right to say "dyooey.
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