ABSTRACT
TEN IMPORTANT TREATtSES 69 really the only fault that the present writer finds with it is Mr. Mencken's rashness in making a good many general statements altogether too sweeping and universal. A few instances will show: "Lawn fete," he says, is "commonly pronounced feet"; "Americans almost invariably accent" the word inquiry on the first syllable; "We change the ph (f) sound to plain p in diphtheria, diphthong and naphtha"; "Cog still retains a pure 0, but one seldom hears it in log"; "Two sons-in-law is never heard-one ,always hears two son-in-laws"; "In common speech, the word is always deef"; and, most amazing of all, this libel on the grammar of the United States: "Such phrases as 'I see nobody' or 'I know nothing about it' are heard so seldom that they appear to be affectations when encountered; the well-nigh universal forms are 'I don't see nobody' and 'I don't know nothing about it.'" Such statements are likely to be pounced upon by British writers as complete admissions by a leading American authority (for as such Mr. Mencken is sure to be recognized) of the distinct inferiority of our speech to that of Great Britain on points on which no such inferiority really exists among Americans as a whole, the blunders noted being either extremely vulgar or extremely local. Undoubtedly in his next edition (and it is to be hoped that several editions of this great work will be called for) Mr. Mencken will make a number of his statements less sweeping.
