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3. To pronounce the a in father as a in fate, or the s in sound as z, is to err in the matter of articulate sounds.

4. To pronounce chemistry as if it were spelled chymistry, or chymistry as if it were spelled chemistry, is an error either of Orthoepy or of Orthography.

5. The Misdivision of Syllables has given rise to a pecul iar class of words. There have been those who have written a nambassador for an ambassador, misdividing the syllables and misdistributing the sound of the letter n. The double form (a and an) of the English Indefinite Article encourages this misdivision. Now in certain words an error of this kind has had a permanent influence. The English word nag is in Danish ög, the n in English having originally belonged to the Indefinite an, which preceded it. The words, instead of being divided thus, an ag, were divided thus, a nag, and the fault became perpetuated. That the Danish is the true form, we collect, first, from the ease with which the English form is accounted for; and, secondly, from the Old Saxon form ehu, Latin equus. In adder we have the process reversed. The true form is nadder, Old English; natter, German. Here the n is taken from the Substantive and added to the Article.

§ 101. 1. The Fault of Incompetent Enunciation.-A person who says sick for thick, or elebben for eleven, does so not because he knows no better, but because he can not enounce the right sound of th and v. He is incompetent to it. His error is not one of ignorance. It is an acoustic or a phonetic defect. 2. The Fault of Erroneous Enunciation.-This is the error of a person who talks of jocholate instead of chocolate. It is not that he can not pronounce rightly, but that he mistakes the nature of the sound required. Still more the person who calls a hedge an edge, and an edge a hedge.

§ 102. One cause of an erroneous enunciation is found in Undefined notions as to the language to which a word belongs. The flower anemone is variously pronounced. Those who know Greek are disposed to say anemone, as if the word was written anemohny. The mass say anemone, as if the word was written anemmony. Now the doubt here is as to the language of the word. If it be Greek, it is anemone.

Αἷμα ῥοδὸν τίτκει, τὰ δε δάκρυα τῶν ̓Ανεμώνον.

BION.

And if it be English, it is, on the score of analogy, undoubtedly anem'one. The pronunciation of the word is determined when we have determined the language of it. class of words are pronounced in different ways, because opin A large ions are divided in respect to the fact whether they are English words or foreign words.

A second cause of an erroneous pronunciation is found in Mistakes as to fact, the language of a word being determ ined. To know the word anemone to be Greek, and to use it as a Greek word, but to call it an'emone, is not to be undecided as to a matter of language, but to be ignorant of a matter of quantity. To know that debris is a French word, and yet to call it debriss', is to be ignorant of the French pronunciation.

A third cause of an erroneous pronunciation is found in the Neglect of Analogy. Each and all of the following words, Orator, theater, senator, are in the Latin language, from whence they are derived, accented on the second syllable; as, Ora'tor, thea'ter, sena'tor. trary, they are accented on the first; as, Or'ator, the'ater, sen'In English, on the conator. The same is the case in many words similarly derived. They similarly suffer a change of accent. do this, that it is the rule in the English for words to throw So many words their accent from the second syllable, counting from the end of the word, to the third. It was on the strength of this rule, in other words, on the analogies of orator, &c., that the English pronunciation of the Greek word 'Aveμóvn was stated to be Anem'ony. Now to take a word derived from the Latin, and to look to its origin and quantity only, without consulting the analogy of other words similarly derived, is to be neglectful of the analogies of our own language, and attentive to the quantities of a foreign one. word, it should be treated as a stranger, and as subject to the While a word is a foreign laws of the language of its own country; but when it has become naturalized, its foreign aspect and accent should be laid aside. In orthography and orthoepy, it should conform to the laws of the English language.

THE STANDARDS OF PRONUNCIATION.

§103. In matters of Orthoepy, it is the usual custom to appeal to one of the following STANDARDS:

I. The Authority of Scholars.-This is of value up to a certain point only. The fittest person for determining the classical pronunciation of a word like anemone is the Classical Scholar; but the mere Classical Scholar is far from being the fittest person to determine the analogies that such a word follows in English.

II. The Usage of Educated Bodies, such as the Bar, the Pulpit, the Senate, &c.-These are recommended by two circumstances: 1. The chance that each member of them is sufficiently a scholar in foreign tongues to determine the original pronunciation of derived words, and sufficiently a critic in his own language to be aware of the analogies that are in operation. 2. The number of imitators that, irrespective of the worth of his pronunciation, each individual carries with him. On this latter ground the Stage is a sort of standard. The objection to the authority of educated bodies is its impracticability. It is only the usage of the component individuals that can be determined. Of these many may carry with them the dialects of their provinces, or of the family or neighborhood in which they received their early education.

III. The Authority of Societies, constituted for the express purpose of taking cognizance of the Language of the country. These have been recognized in Italy and other parts of the Continent; they have been only proposed in Great Britain. Their inefficacy arises from the inutility of attempting to fix that which, like language, is essentially fluctuating.

IV. The Authority of the Written Language.-When a language which has existed only in sounds is about to become a written language, the object aimed at is to adopt such a system of spelling as shall exactly represent those sounds, and the system is regarded as correct or faulty just in proportion as it accomplishes this or fails to do it. But after a system of orthography is established, and the language has assumed its external form, not only does the orthography accommodate

itself to the pronunciation, but the pronunciation is modified by accommodating itself to the orthography. This is espe cially the fact where the great mass of the people are readers, and get their pronounciation of many words from books by consulting the power of the letters, rather than from conIt is believed that in the United States, where most of the inhabitants get their pronunciation from books as well as from the ear, the spoken language is made to conform to the written language more than it does in Great Britain.

versation.

V. Ease of Pronunciation.-Upon this ground the word accept'able should be accented on the second syllable rather than on the first, according to the notation of Walker.

VI. Satisfaction to the Ear-Other things being equal, sounds either simple or combined, which are agreeable to the ear, are to be preferred to others. For this reason, if for no other, the accent on the second syllable of the word inquiry is preferable to the accent on the first.

For an application of these rules and principles to the correct pronunciation of the words in the English language, and to the graceful pronunciation of this language in continuous discourse, see Pronouncing Dictionaries, such as Webster's and Worcester's, and the current works on Elocution.

§ 104. For a person on a point of pronunciation to trust to his own judgment, he must be capable, with every word he doubts about, of discussing three questions.

I. The Abstract or Theoretical Propriety of a certain Pronunciation. To determine this, he must have a sufficient knowledge of foreign tongues and a sufficient knowledge of English analogies. He must also have some tests by which he can determine to what language an equivocal word belongs. Of tests for this purpose, one, among others, is the following: Let it be asked whether the word lens (in Optics) is English or Latin; whether it is to be considered as a naturalized word or a strange one. The following fact will give an answer. There is of the word lens a plural number, and this plural number is the English from lenses, and not the Latin from lentes. The existence of an English Inflection proves that the word to which it belongs is English, although its absence does not prove the contrary. That the word anemone is En

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glish (and consequently pronounced anem'one), we know from the Plural form, which is not anemonæ, but anemones.

II. The Preference of one Pronunciation over another on the score of Utility.-The word ascetic, for certain orthographical reasons, notwithstanding its origin from the Greek GOKεo, is called assetic. From similar reasons, there is a tendency to call the word sceptic, septic. Theoretical propriety (and, be it observed, the analogy of ascetic has not been overlooked) is in favor of the word being sounded skeptic. The tendency of language is, however, the other way. Now, the tendency of language and the theoretical propriety being equal, there is an advantage (a point of utility) in saying skeptic, which turns the scale. By sounding the k, we distinguish the word skeptic from septic. By this the language gains a point in perspicuity, so that we can talk of the antiskeptic writings of Bishop Warburton, and of the antiseptic properties of charcoal.

III. The Tendencies of Language.—From § 70, we see that the combination ew is an Unstable Combination, that it has a tendency to become yoo, and that the y in yoo has a tendency to change a d preceding into j; in other words, we see the reason why, by many persons, dew is pronounced jew.

It is sometimes an easier matter to say how a word will be sounded a hundred years hence than to determine its present pronunciation. Theoretical propriety is in favor of dew; so also is the view in the way of utility. Notwithstanding this, posterity will say jew, for the tendencies of language are paramount to all other influences.

We may now judge of the relative value of the three lines of criticism exhibited above. Other things being equal, the language should have the advantage of the doubt, and the utility of a given pronunciation should prevail over its theoretical propriety. Where, however, the tendencies are overwhelming, we can only choose whether, in doubtful words, we shall speak like our ancestors or like our posterity.—— Latham, p. 153.

K

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