accents & prescriptivism

[George Thompson]

We have had some discussion here lately about those who dislike the
accents of others.  One's response to another's accent is not always an
esthetic matter.

This is from the [New York] Commercial Advertiser, July 28, 1830, p. 2,
col. 5:

A woman named Hagley, native of England residing in Hudson street, died
on Saturday by taking Opium Pills, which were sent by a druggist who
mistook the messenger's pronunciation of "opening".  He can scarcely be
fit to send drugs.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.