The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1862-11-06

CHuulsN 1euaiIry, DAD English, III MAN.
ners, Falsehood, Downright Misrepresentation
IA rather pretty catalogue of virtues to be at
tributed TO Penumbra, a Shadow of a Shade,
an Incorrigible, in one word of concentrated
abuse, Teacher! This then is the polteness
of the old school; these are manners that need
not be mended; this is the style in which an
old fashioned gentleman vindicates his pronun-
citation of English words. So be it.
With ]. Ms little peculiarities of speech, no
gentleman unless perhaps Of the old school)
would dream of meddling. so long as they are
his private pecularities. Archasms of speech
and by-gone styles of dress are like white hairs,
SO many proofs of long experience, so many
claims to reverence. But when these pecul-
iarities are obtruded upon the public, when
youthful readers" are assured that thus and
no otherwise can the mother tongue be rightly
spoken, it is surely reasonable 10 suggest that
over seventy years have passed since the first
edition of Walker dictionary appeared t119l),
and even "Todd's Walker" is no longer
standard of English pronunciation.
:" My authority is not myself" says j. n.
"but Walker-Todds Walker" Indeed. Well,
what was Walkers authority? His purpose
was in his own language, " to register the pres
eat state" of English orthoepy. Smart, like
Walker London teacher of eocution, pub
lished his well known work in 1885. "Dispos-
ed on general points," he writes, to think en-
tirely with my predecessor, i have not had any
very extensive occasion for differing from him
in lint s;fpa bav
CURED, as might be expected, from the dis
lance between his day and mine" One of
these occasions was the very word yeast which
nobody but J. n. has pronounced or written
yest for more than quarter of century.
Smart's object was, in his own words, to re-
fleet the oral usage of English, such as it is ut
present" Neither of these scholars thought
of setting up everlasting boundaries for a liv-
ing, growing language. "Oral usage among
the intelligent and well educated" is the STAN
dard to which each Appeals cariabie STAN
dard, and explicitly recognized as such by
each.
1t is to be hoped that this point is made SO
plain that wayfaring man, though j. n, need
not err therein. For j. n. hitherto seems un-
able or unwilling TO see that the usage of 1862
is not the usage OF 1891. "What / complain
Of" he says pathetically, speaking of hypoM-
enuse, lis that speakers Of reputation some
times put in that h." 1t is sad case; but
what on earth can be done about it?
Did educated Englishmen in Walkers time
really call Sapphire, Sap.fra; tenet tenet:
tenure tenure; arquebusier, arkebooseer;
pronounce tiny as if derived from tine; sound
the in saloe; accent aristocrat, acceptable,
receptacle and utensils on the first syllable;
and sound the hard 9 in physiognomyf How
ever that may be, they do not uniformly or
commonly now, unless Worcester msrepre-
sents them. Ii J. n. would confine his atten-
ton to such words as bomb, babe, sUord, mach
nations, &C., about which no dispute can
arise, he might do some good; but this at
tempted exclamation of defunct orthoepy is
not to be tanely permitted. 1t will not do to
have youthful readers needlessly affrighted
by all awful voice warning them on pain of
"barbarism" to pronounce Arab, A-rdb, as Mr..
Bayard Taylor at least does not-the barba-
rian!
- The personal part of j. Ms communi-
cation has nothing whatever to do with the
main question. 1t is an odd evidence of haste
or excitement however, to find him in the
same article protesting that he has little or no
faith in derirationS or anulogies, where Ian
guageis concerned" and charging the "Penum-
bra" with "a wretched vulgarism, violating
alike both analogy and derioations." Refer
ence 10 any decent dictionary, probably to
"Todd's Walker" will show him that neither
is not so strictly limited to simple alterna-
tive as he imagines and Lind-lay Murray prob
ably mentions figure called eltipsis, which
would explain the confessedly loose syntax of
the sentence criticized. "They neither of them
are"
When J. n. wrote the sentence beginning 'If
,re do not follow some acknowledged authori-
ty, ,ce set up ourSetres,' &C., did he use we
for or not? and il not, why misunderstood
the same indeliaite use of the pronoun by X.
W.? OF course, ,ce means K. w. and ninety
nine Others who refuse to be led back to eigh-
teenth century English, even by j. Ms mild
and gracious persuasons. R.W
% Mr.. David r. Wylie, OF Bath, has been
appointed Acting Sd Assistant Engineer in
the U. S. Navy, and ordered to report to Rear
Z. II;rn.,, D., Na.r-