How American Was Franklin’s English?

Gary D. German’s Benjamin Franklin: Orthoepist and Phonetician has been published in open-access form (hurrah!); Vol. 1 is Language, Literacy and Social Mobility in Franklin’s World and Vol. 2 is Colonial American Voices and London Norms: Franklin’s Quest for an Orthographic Reform. The latter is full of details of Hattic interest: Part III is “A Historical Phonology of Colonial New England English: ‘Probing under the Iceberg,’” Part IV “Franklin’s Reformed Mode of Spelling (1768/1779), ‘English’ or ‘American’?” and Part V “Franklin’s Linguistic Legacy.” The Introduction to Part IV reads as follows: As announced in the General Introduction (cf. Volume I), Part IV is the culmination of a long study, the objective of which was to compare the data accrued in Part III regarding the nature of New England pronunciation and, in particular, of Franklin’s native Boston, Philadelphia influenced pronunciation. Part IV assembles and discusses all the elements needed to definitively establish: a.…