Diary in America Volume I Part 20

An immediate answer not being returned, he continued:

"Yes, gentlemen, a bottle of Madeira; at my expense, gentlemen, recollect that; now ring the bell."

"I shall be most happy to take a gla.s.s of wine with you," observed I, "but in my own room the wine must be at _my_ expense."

"At _your_ expense, Captain; well, if it must be, I don't care; at _your_ expense then, Captain, if you say so; only, you see, we must show you a little American hospitality, as I said to them all down below; didn't I, gentlemen?"

The wine was ordered, and it ended in my hospitable friends drinking three bottles, and then they all shook hands with me, declaring how happy they should be if I came to the town again, allowed them to show me a little more American hospitality.

There was something so very ridiculous in this event, that I cannot help narrating it; but let it not be supposed, for a moment, that I intend it as a sarcasm upon American hospitality in general. There certainly are conditions usually attached to their hospitality, if you wish to profit by it to any extent; and one is, that you do not venture to find fault with themselves, their manners, or their inst.i.tutions.

_Note_--That a guest, partaking of their hospitality, should give his opinions unasked, and find fault, would be in very bad taste, to say the least of it. But the fault in America is, that you are compelled to give an opinion, and you cannot escape by a doubtful reply: as the American said to me in Philadelphia, "I wish a _categorical_ answer."

Thus, should you not agree with them, you are placed upon the horns of a dilemma: either you must affront the company, or sacrifice truth.

END OF DIARY.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

REMARKS--LANGUAGE.

The Americans boldly a.s.sert that they speak better English than we do, and I was rather surprised not to find a statistical table to that effect in Mr Carey's publication. What I believe the Americans would imply by the above a.s.sertion is that you may travel through all the United States and find less difficulty in understanding or being understood, than in some of the counties of England, such as Cornwall, Devons.h.i.+re, Lancas.h.i.+re and Suffolk. So far they are correct; but it is remarkable how very debased the language has become in a short period in America. There are few provincial dialects in England much less intelligible than the following. A Yankee girl, who wished to hire herself out, was asked if the had any followers or sweethearts? After a little hesitation, she replied, "Well, now, can't exactly say; I bees a sorter courted and a sorter not; reckon more a sorter yes than a sorter no." In many points the Americans have to a certain degree obtained that equality which they profess; and, as respects their language, it certainly is the case. If their lower cla.s.ses are more intelligible than ours, it is equally true that the higher cla.s.ses do not speak the language so purely or so cla.s.sically as it is spoken among the well educated English. The peculiar dialect of the English counties is kept up because we are a settled country; the people who are born in a county live in it, and die in it, transmitting their sites of labour or of amus.e.m.e.nt to their descendants, generation after generation, without change: consequently, the provincialisms of the language become equally hereditary. Now, in America, they have a dictionary containing many thousands of words, which, with us, are either obsolete or are provincialisms, or are words necessarily invented by the Americans.

When the people of England emigrated to the states, they came from every county in England, and each county brought its provincialisms with it.

These were admitted into the general stock; and were since all collected and bound up by one Mr Webster. With the exception of a few words coined for local uses (such as _snags_ and _sawyers_, on the Mississippi,) I do not recollect a word which I have not traced to be either a provincialism of some English county, or else to be obsolete English. There are a few from the Dutch, such as _stoup_, for the porch of a door, etcetera. I was once talking with an American about Webster's dictionary, and he observed, "Well now, sir, I understand it's the only one used in the Court of St James, by the king, queen, and princesses, and that by royal order."

The upper cla.s.s of the Americans do not, however, speak or p.r.o.nounce English according to our standard; they appear to have no exact rule to guide them, probably from the want of any intimate knowledge of Greek or Latin. You seldom hear a derivation from the Greek p.r.o.nounced correctly, the accent being generally laid upon the wrong syllable. In fact, every one appears to be independent, and p.r.o.nounces just as he pleases.

But it is not for me to decide the very momentous question, as to which nation speaks the best English. The Americans generally improve upon the inventions of others; probably they may have improved upon our language.

I recollect some one observing how very superior the German language was to the English, from their possessing so many compound substantives and adjectives; whereupon his friend replied, that it was just as easy for us to possess them in England if we pleased, and gave us as an example an observation made by his old dame at Eaton, who declared that young Paulet was, without any exception, the most _good-for-nothing-est_, the most _provoking-people-est_, and the most _poke-about-every-corner-est_ boy she had ever had charge of in her life.

a.s.suming this principle of improvement to be correct, it must be acknowledged that the Americans have added considerably to our dictionary; but, as I have before observed, this being a point of too much delicacy for me to decide upon, I shall just submit to the reader the occasional variations, or improvements, as they may be, which met my ears during my residence in America, as also the idiomatic peculiarities, and having so done, I must leave him to decide for himself.

I recollect once talking with one of the first men in America, who was narrating to me the advantages which might have accrued to him if he had followed up a certain speculation, when he said, "Sir, if I had done so, I should not only have _doubled_ and _trebled_, but I should have _fourbled_ and _fivebled_ my money."

One of the members of congress once said, "What the honourable gentleman has just a.s.serted I consider as _catamount_ to a denial;"--(catamount is the term given to a panther or lynx.)

"I presume," replied his opponent, "that the honourable gentleman means _tantamount_."

"No, sir, I do not mean _tantamount_; I am not so ignorant of our language, not to be aware that catamount and tantamount are anonymous."

The Americans dwell upon their words when they speak--a custom arising, I presume, from their cautious, calculating habits; and they have always more or less of a nasal tw.a.n.g. I once said to a lady, "Why do you drawl out your words in that way?"

"Well," replied she, "I'd drawl all the way from Maine to Georgia, rather than _clip_ my words as you English people do."

Many English words are used in a very different sense from that which we attach to them; for instance: a _clever_ person in America means an amiable, good-tempered person, and the Americans make the distinction by saying, I mean English clever.

Our _clever_ is represented by the word _smart_.

The verb _to admire_ is also used in the East, instead of the verb _to like_.

"Have you ever been at Paris?"

"No; but I should _admire_ to go."

A Yankee description of a clever woman:--

"Well, now, she'll walk right into you, and talk to you like a book;"

or, as I have heard them say, "she'll talk you out of sight."

The word ugly is used for cross, ill-tempered. "I did feel so _ugly_ when he said that."

_Bad_ is used in an odd sense: it is employed for awkward, uncomfortable: sorry:--

"I did feel so _bad_ when I read that"--awkward.

"I have felt quite _bad_ about it ever since"--uncomfortable.

"She was so _bad_, I thought she would cry"--sorry.

And as bad is tantamount to not _good_, I have heard a lady say, "I don't feel _at all good_ this morning."

Mean is occasionally used for ashamed.

"I never felt so mean in my life."

The word handsome is oddly used.

"We reckon this very handsome scenery, sir," said an American to me, pointing to the landscape.

"I consider him very truthful," is another expression.

"He stimulates too much."

"He dissipates awfully."

And they are very fond of using the noun as a verb, as--"I _suspicion_ that's a fact."

"I _opinion_ quite the contrary."

The word _considerable_ is in considerable demand in the United States.

In a work in which the letters of the party had been given to the public as specimens of good style and polite literature, it is used as follows:--

"My dear sister, I have taken up the pen early this morning, as I intend to write _considerable_." (Life and Remains of Charles Pont.)