Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-02-22


UsageS are not the easiest things in the world
to account for. In fact, they are so often direct
ly opposite TO all dictates of reason and conven-
fence, and so often directly contradictory in diff
1erent places, that one is at loss for any better
theory to refer them TO than that of total depray-
ity. We seem to be "llven over to do those
things which are not convenient" There is a
law in mans members at war with the law of
the mind. and com pelling them to turn every
thing wrong end foremost. Can any better rea-
son be given, for instance, for the involuntary
but er1nT tei tainty with which the Natural man
OF cockney variety pronounceS 20 where he GU hit
70 use q, and never by any accident fails to use
where 10 is the proper sound2 If The former
error stood alone, 1t might be accounted for by
lazincss. There is an infnitesimal effort in
bringing the ed sc Of the superior incisors-we
beg pardon, the upper front teeth-in contact
with the under lip, so as to form the articula-
ton represented by q. This effort we have no.
tced, that some lazy people are given to saving
themselves by letting it go as 10. SALIVA.
non, CALCULATED with great power on the syIla-
ole aca was lavorite ingredient in the oratory
OF an ardent eXhOrter to whom we often Ii :
tened with pleasure in times past This
good brother was anything but lazy, though
bis difficulty was to check the rush of sound,
for the proper articulation. We doubt but he
would have esteemed it no better tbon
"quenchng the spirit But your cockney has
no such excuse His wrong is lust as Ter
slstently and accurately wrong, as his wronE TO-
IL lSa case of positive mental depravty and IN.
version. Such, too, is the low Englishman's
wonderful art of interchanging the aspirated
and unaspirated vowels; an art which he prac-
tees as unconsciously as that of breathing, and
as perfectly; never mixing up the rival elements,
nor confusing his own mind whatever he NAV
do to others) by the contradictions of meaning,
The loquacious barber who frightened his Gus
toner out of the chair by remarking that the
prevailing pestilence seemed to be communicated
a IN ,,;41,
out violence TO his own dialect, by explaining
that he did not mean the AR of the ed but the
Fair of the hatmosphere. Apropos of LAZY ar
tculation, although ii is a "little off the MAT
ter, we cannot withhold from fame pecu-
narlty we have observed thus far in but one in
divldual; respectable business man in New
York, whose aggregate savings must be consid-
cradle, If he is as economical in all things as in
labials. 1t grieves his lips SO much to meet and
part, that they can never make the articulation
M, for example. Its next neighbor H. inyaria-
bly, takes its place, with ludicrous effect: es-
pecially in case of an accidental ALTERATION,
When we heard him say, with utter unconscious.
ness OF singularity, that "NcNullen is the mean
east man in ny acquaintance" concluded that
such an original labor-saving genius ought not
10 remain in obscurity.
The street gamins of New York have set of
diversions which are among the most remarka-
bic, even TO difficulty, that we have ever OBJ
served. They result from an apparent resolu-
non always to separate final as distinct
syllable whenever it ought to be Incorporated,
and per contra, to force the whole termination
into one sound In all cases where that is con-
trary to usage, and next to impossible. If a
newsboy OF this ilk cries the Daily News, for in
stance, he struggles, Ikea beginner in some
strange and uncouth tongue, to twist the word
News into two syllables. 1t is Noo-us, or
New-ess, or New.iz, Or at best, Noo-sss. Each
OF these, with intermediate shades, we often
hear delivered with an effort that prolongs the
final sibIlant to a whistle. Again, Charles is
always Charles. But per contra, oranges, a
word often heard among street cries, defes
them to pronounce it in less than three sylla-
bles, and the challenge provokes them 10 do it
in two, at all hazards. Let any one try the COM
bnatiOn, oranges (g soft until he succeeds 10
wrinsing out the latter syllable in one prolonged
and jaw-wrenching sound. The struggle and
the effect will be just what we witness when
ever one of these misguided mortals cries
oranges according to the dictates of his con.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and Builder.