Let me only put in a plea for the
retention of such abnormal spellings as serve to distinguish two words
of the same sound. For instance, it seems to me useful that we should
write "story" for a tale and "storey" for a floor, and in the plural
"stories" and "storeys."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote T: "Surely, on Mr. Archer's own showing," writes Mr. A.B.
Walkley, "the Englishman has the advantage here, for 'when he wants to
be emphatic' he can be, whereas the American cannot." This is a
misapprehension on Mr. Walkley's part. The American a can be spoken with
or without emphasis, just as the speaker pleases. It is because we are
accustomed always to associate this particular sonority with emphasis
that even when it is spoken without emphasis, we imagine it to be
emphatic.]
III
Passing now from questions of pronunciation and grammar to questions of
vocabulary, I can only express my sense of the deep indebtedness of the
English language, both literary and colloquial, to America, for the old
words she has kept alive and the new words and phrases she has invented.
It is a sheer pedantry--nay, a misconception of the laws which govern
language as a living organism--to despise pithy and apt colloquialisms,
and even slang.
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