The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-07-15
PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
Whim, nnd Tn,hion, in rronnnciation.

Whims and Fashions in Pronunciation.
What shall vs say Of the cou~ventionalities
Of pronunciation, and the mysterious caprice
whica regulates the value OF our British
vovels and cousouauts Ia the primers and
hOrn-bOOks OF iutaut-lI!e, ID, y, e., has spelt
dog from time lmmsmOral. But the dam
dies Of the Reformation called that intelli-
gent little quadrgped a dag and the dan
dies Of our own time call II u "dwag.'
Much commiseatiOn has been felt for the
90 poor letter H. and the neglect with which
II has been treated Ia cOckney dialect. But
the letter X j. worse of, for It's use Is being
gradually abandoned in those quarters where
the purity OF the Queens English IS sup
posed to BE- most ~scrupulously preserved. As
an initial. II was once a fashion TO pronounce
II as a " and indeed il was only the other
day that / heard n man speaking OF some
widiculous ew,yor which had cwept into a
celebwated dwana, and wcmained there long
after IL had been witten, wead, wepeated, and
wehearsed. This was an afiectation which
came in with Lytton Bulwer and departed
with Thackeray. There are few, even of
our youngest exquisites, who venture TO speak
IN such accents now. But the K Is, never
theless, slurred over and even omitted by
many, who would scout the idea Of initiating
a natural defect o.. speech. What has be-
come, for instance, of the final consonant IN
the word - father g. I'm west country dia-
icct il is still preserved, but in polite circles
It is pronounced s. fatya - never . nevah,"
and so forth. Half d century ago the letter
a was similarly misused. Old gentlemen
still exist who speak of q. St. Jeame's street
and the 3" Peletinete. E and | changed their
places. Arithmetic was called " arethmetic."
and messenger became ''missinger." To
this day Lord Russell declares that he is
q obleeged,' and 1t IS Il curious proof how
extremes meet, that the same expression Is
adopted by the hEmblest labOrer IN Devon
shire. The truth Is, that when the word was
originally borrowed from the French, every
one called it g obleeged - and this provin-
cialism. like many others of the same class,
is nothing more than the Old-fashiOned talk
of our forefathers.
That our pronunciation, not only of Eng
lish, but of foreign languages, has materially
altered with this generation, there can be
little doubt. The other day | met with an
old book Of French phrases, III which the in
geuiOus author had endeayOred to convey a
sort Of phonetic equivalent Of their sound TO
British ears. Thus we are told that " en-
bOnpOint - should be pronounced -'anC-pong-
pwang," - cheEd'Guvre," as d. she dOOveT,'
.'tOut-en-Semble," as . tu-tang-Sam' bic" &c.
Fancy our adheriug to such a system now,
and the surprise with which Frenchmen
would hear such a sentence Us " Beeang, ie
revneangdray demang mattang!" People
of education are scrupulous in calling Berk-
ley Square Barley Square, the Derby Day
the Darby, and 50 forth. In the main they
are right for these words are proper names,
and should be, Of course, pronounced as their
owners pronounce them. But IL must be
remembered that the corruption of names is
only due to a fleeing fashion, which another
generation may ignore. Thus while =. Ma
Ioribanks s" remains =. Marchbanks," and
- ChoImondeley" Chumley.' e. Caven-
dish, which was once called :. Candish, has
returned to its original length.-London s.
cietU