WORDS AND THEIR AUTHORITIES. 345 



with much greater distinctness and more elegance than we com- 

 monly do ; perhaps they generally err in being too precise and 

 methodical, and it may be that the Londoners converse with more 

 rapidity and ease, or carelessness, than others. That what are 

 shown to us as peculiarities of cockney dialect, are mere vulgar- 

 isms and slang, not altogether peculiar to the metropolis, is very 

 true. 



Agreeably to Walker, the educated English often give the 

 sound of a to e, pronouncing Derby, Darby; clerk, dark, etc. 

 This at first seemed very odd ; but when I returned home, our 

 own way had become foreign to me. "With us, except in society 

 which has a more than ordinary European element, foreign words 

 in common use, are more generally Anglicized than in England ; 

 and though when one is accustomed to the more polite sound 

 there may seem an affectation of simplicity in this, I cannot but 

 wish that our custom was more general. The French almost 

 universally adapt foreign words of which they have need for 

 common use to the requirements of their habitual tongue, chang- 

 ing not only the pronunciation but the orthography : they write 

 rosbif, for English roast beef; biftek, for beefsteak. So we write 

 and pronounce cotelette, cutlet ; why need we say " angtremay," 

 for entremets ? or if we choose that sound, and like it also better 

 than " side-dishes" why not print it "angtremay?" We write 

 Cologne, for Koln ; why not Leeong, for Lyons ? or if Lyons, let 

 us also speak it Lyons, and consider Leeong an affectation except 

 when we speak it in connection with other plainly French words. 

 The rule with regard to such matters is, to follow custom. Sin- 

 gularity is impertinent where it can be gracefully avoided ; but 

 as there is more tendency to Anglicize foreign words that are in 

 general use in America than in England, and this is a good and 

 sensible tendency, let us not look for our rules to English custom. 

 Let us read Venus de Medicis, Venus de Medicis, rather than 



