The Voice and Diction of Conversation : Page 66

This is fortunate, for while everyone should of course try to conform his pronunciation to the national standard, the accidents of birth and background do not enable everyone to do so. A Bostonian in Chicago certainly should tone his Bostonian down and try to sound more like a refined Chicagoan, but try as he might he would not be likely to succeed entirely. In general, given a different background in youth, perfect conformity to the national standard can hardly be achieved. Nor need this be of too much concern, since some little differences and pecularities exist in the best of speakers. The scholar, Albert C. Baugh, in his History of the English Language, writes, "There is no such thing as uniformity in language. Not only does the speech of one com-