The Mechanics and Rhetoric of Conversation : Page 34

I suppose true etiquette of speech, in the last analysis, and the secret of success are "to go along with the boys," so that they "understand." When everybody in a locality or a situation talks a certain way, even the respected members present, then it is not wrong, and may be wise, to do likewise. What one says is a matter of principle; one may not swear just because everybody else does. But how one talks is a matter of accepted usage, not of principle, and that is the best manner which is preferred and most easily understood by one's hearers. For several years I tried heroically to pronounce aunt and ask as the dictionary preferred. I have finally given up and, retaining just a flavor of the a in arm, pronounce them almost as if they rhymed with pant and flask. If high and low in a locality say pungkin or punkin for pumpkin, it may be advisable to pronounce it that way, too.