If American writers tried to make "most"
supplant "almost" in the literary language, we should have a right to
remonstrate; the two forms would fight it out, and the fittest would
survive. But as a matter of fact I am not aware that any one has
attempted to introduce "most," in this sense, into literature. It is
perfectly recognised as a colloquialism, and as such it keeps its place.
Again, such pronunciations as "mebbe" for "maybe" and "I'd ruther" or "I
druther" for "I'd rather" are obvious slovenlinesses. No American would
defend them as being correct, any more than an Englishman would defend
"I dunno" for "I don't know" or "atome" for "at home." If an actor, for
instance, were to say,
"I druther be a dog and bay the moon
Than such a Roman,"
American and English critics alike could not but protest against the
solecism; for in poetry absolute precision of utterance is clearly
indispensable. But in everyday speech a certain amount of colloquialism
is inevitable. Let him whose own enunciation is chemically free from
localism or slovenliness cast the first stone even at "mebbe" and
"ruther."
A curious American colloquialism, of which I certainly cannot see the
advantage, in the substitution of "yep," or "yup" for "yes," and of
"nope" for "no.
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