Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1871-1872, 1872-01-09
PRONUNCIATION.
By ARTEMAs wETHERBEE.


Rock Island County Teachers Institute, sna 4
is Published BY request.
The pronunciation OF the English lAn-
guARs hardly became All art uutll Walker, a
ihe English orthgpist, gave It tone, vigor' a
and system. Wsker's prODunciauoa, with &
few notifications, prevails to-day.
Eagland, France, Germany, IN fact no
nation can boast such a Ssneness IN pro- !
nunoiAtion as our o~n. Germany has /
about a. many dialects as shs has states.
Little England has more dialects thau 'he
United States. The sailor has dialect Of 1
his owu; 80 has tbs min-r Ia the Ivrrl'orles |
aud the negro. Boz among the educated {.
classes 10 this cOuntry but very 'Hle aH'r- Z
ence ia speech eau b. detected twenty :
FIVE years ago person cOad perceive The
hick-hpped speech Ia the south, aud the
nasal tuoe 10 some parts OF New England,
bu, COMMUNICATION has become 30 easy
that pronunci alton is nation !, aud not To-
cal. have listened TO lecturers from Bos-
ton, New York, PhiAdel phia Chicago, and
ST. LOUIS, without perceIving auy difference
in dialect. Even the cultural tone OF the
Tenton, aud the brogue ut the Irish. dissp-
pear in a SINGLE generation after the immi-
grants have landed upon our shores Its
the sAmsness Of proaaBc'auos, TO great |
extent, which gives sJHd,ty 20 IA asa ma /
ton. Probsbl, no one Accompli.hment is
such a true exponent Of the educated per /
son As correct pronunciation. 10u never
saw IN ignorant person Who was good
pronnuncer. Then how important IL is that
We thoroughly understand thi, art
One handrsd thousand words are found
in ou- language. II We omit al technical
aud absolute words, hardly forty THOUSAND
remain Shakespeare, the prince ot sen
tsncc-making, uses bat fifteen thousand
Milton only half that number; and the Av
erAse scholar Of to-day only about half As
May a, Milton Ninsiy-utne huGdrelths
OF the pupils 10 our schools could wrI.s al
the words which they would over use "a
half-dimG memorandum book. A ehilds
vocabulary, it 10 said contains NOS more
thAn hundred words.
IL would not be strange It a person could
not pronounce forty Thousand words cor
rectly bat there IL n fault somew here when
one-tsnth or one-forueth Of al the words
We use are moprouounced, even though
we heve received ouly common school
education. Bat bal ortbupy is not con
fined 10 the uusduested
The Eughsh language is derived from so
AhNI hNNNtest tNNh 90 ~ ANNusaetN wv W w
be somewhat versed In several languages 1t
We would DO accurate 10 our uwn. The
English pronunciation Of the La,in Ian
RuAge ought TO be prsdom'nate over the
Continental, because the EnZlsh method
teaches US TO pronounce E4rlish words.
Especially should this prevail because
the true method Of prououacins Latin il
not certain. Whoever has learned the sound
r.. - TTBtfft.
us.ns nor ~OuId QUE cOuyrrssut 18th
French. pronounce boqnsi b0-kG, or Fdrrd
gUi with the sound OF chs {
Pitt, Sheridan, Webster, Clay, Everett,
were well versed 10 the ~, Of prouuuc,a-
ton, but they we're ezcelled by Henderson,
Mrs. Sidioos. Kean. Kemole and Rachel.
Persons uujsrstsndug this art are IS rare
~ he blossoms OF csHtuIy p.aui. Nine
persons out Of ten, Of those sho are con
sidered scholars. are baugIsrs u the art
We could excuse one for error in any
branch of education sooner than IN pro-
nunciAtior; not even spelling excepted. A
thousand word are pronounced by slun.,
every one where one single 1.-THE " ihs
other branches. u brought into use. Words
are the vehicle. OF thought, b. whoa W.
obtain aud impars kuo sledge, then how IN
chem. Educators, above al, should b.
able 20 pronounce al common words cor
rectly; but sometimes We 6ad sciensist NJ
absorbed ia BIZ, suhi ct tina, he f1rgets t,'
pronunciation. and he sounds 90 limpinq
on Airy uavslrt., sud strike our ears viii
disgust. While converting With classica
professor, not loug since, he said: at is er
ira-or-diaarg how q uckly Young men wish
to engage ~ mercant lc pursuits A bizt
school teacher, So my hssr,1S, pronounced
column col yum Eve times, beiore the pub
lac, 10 about ~ many minutes.
Nearly ell teachers. howeger slight ther
education, tell their pg pil, not g. pronounce
does dos preig prity; hem bin Bu
besides these very con non words there ar
many common oue, frequently, may sa'
commonly, mtspropouugsd By many OF "a
Ar ab - quite a common word since tn
shaw VI ths Bedouin has been worn, an
mani pfolou ace !. I-rti. WOuad th
verb, - often pronounced wound. som
one SAYS that the latter pr nuuc,a,iuu D.
sanctioned By W-bter Vsry vel bu
that does not make It right. The usage o
the best speakers ~ ei~Ays ahead Of tb
dictionaries IN progressive language. Ih
best speakers say i-p0Hd HIU.O IL aim Is
always pronounced huiio: finance II Hance
direct. direct Inquiry ., o.trutimss pro
Bouucsd ia-gIi-rU 0terHGtirc, all terH1tire
and how many pronounce HuliuH, ai0H
hunt h1pHt: often, wIth ths sound o. th
(: and Ia hORet, Nahom.ci. ! once ask'I
learned doctor tor Br0HaS TrOches
"Trocheese. troche.Se.' SAID be sith an en-
phAsis, Yea, We have BrOirH'S T Orheesc
Sacrifice is frequently pronounced sacrIu'
homeopathy, homeopabU ere, e.; leisure
Ia sure. measure, ma sure; aud adoer Use
uent, adrertise meHi Bdde "a very OF 81
gtven bate, aud com parable c9mparia6i,
Eeery Is frequently pronounced ee,y
A Germ Al, educated IN English, wa
dsputing with his wife, who was an Amer
can lady Of culture, so called, in reisrenc
20 the pronunciation OF massacre To
husband declaring that - was pronounced
ngdssdc re, and the sifs maintaining that !
was pronounced massacre.
Ia order 10 pronounce correctly says Df
Blair, fJIr reqa,siteo are nee s,ary: Loud
meas Of voice; Di,tiuctness; SloWness
Pruprieiy Of prJnuntiAtiun. These, perhaps
might be fused into di,tioctness. Pronuu
citation is an art. sad must be taught b.
sxGmpl,, snd learned by imitation. There
fore, II Is an i'm perst,ve duty that the teachr
know how 10 pronounce correctly.
We must be careful that our uttersnce /
not affected a. prououuciGg often With III
sound o. the {, either and neither. eithe
and neither. The latter is English, no
good American.
The remedy Tor this faulty pronunciation
must he applied a the Primary department
because 20 uauy OF our pupils never reSc
even the Intermediate. Drilling in tn
-
mast be praeticed continually. Hence, tn
bes, educated should bs 10 the Primar
department.