sponding air to their mode of speaking.
Those who are accustomed to command slaves form a habit of expressing
themselves with the tone of authority and decision. In New England,
where there are few slaves and servants, and less family distinctions
than in any other part of America, the people are accustomed to address
each other with that diffidence, or attention to the opinion of others,
which marks a state of equality. Instead of commanding, they advise;
instead of saying, with an air of decision, _you must_; they ask, with
an air of doubtfulness, _is it not best_? or give their opinions with an
indecisive tone; _You had better, I believe._ Not possessing that pride
and consciousness of superiority which attend birth and fortune, their
intercourse with each other is all conducted on the idea of equality,
which gives a singular tone to their language and complexion to their
manners.... Such are the causes of the local peculiarities in
pronunciation which prevail among the country people in New England, and
which, to foreigners, are the objects of ridicule. The great error in
their manner of speaking proceeds immediately from not opening the mouth
sufficiently. Hence words are drawled out in a careless lazy manner, or
the sound finds a passage thro the nose."

This may have the merit of ingenuity, but in connection with it Webster
makes a sounder observation when he compares New England perpetuating
old English idioms because of her isolation, to an internal village
contrasted with a city. "New England has been in the situation of an
island; during one hundred and sixty years, the people, except in a few
commercial towns, have not been exposed to any of the causes which
effect great changes in language and manners."

To continue these notes: he finds the use of _w_ for _v_ prevalent in
Boston and Philadelphia, as _weal_ for _veal_, but unknown in Hartford.
"Vast numbers of people in Boston and the neighborhood use _w_ for _v_;
yet I never once heard this pronunciation in Connecticut." He regards
this use as the survival of old custom, but since the nation in general
had made a distinction, every person should resign his peculiarities
for the sake of uniformity. "The words _either_, _neither_, _deceit_,
_conceit_, _receipt_, are generally pronounced by the Eastern people
_ither_, _nither_, _desate_, _consate_, _resate_. These are errors; all
the standard authors agree to give _ei_ in these words the sound of
_ee_. This