| 词源 |
Amurrican. Linguist Raven I. McDavid Jr. told of how his conservative professors, literally interpreting the pronuncia- tions indicated in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, fifth edition, criticized his educated South Carolinian pronunciation of the word American. McDavid pointed out that there are at least five pronunciations, one as good as any other, these in- cluding the second syllable with the vowel of hurry, with the vowel of hat, with the vowel of hit, with the vowel of hate, and with the vowel of put. There is no all-American pronunciation of American. Similarly, many Americans voted against what H. L. Mencken sarcastically called “the caressing rayon voice” of the politician Wendell Willkie because the Hoosier pronounced “American” as Amurrican. |