The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1876-09-21
Home Pronunciation.


A traveller who visited the old home
of Charlotte BrOnte, at Haworth, some
wears since, relates that he found il very
hard to make a peasant in the %neighbor-
hood understand whittier he wanted TO
20. He tried various fanciful pronun-
Citations of the name, but none Of them
seemed TO convey the definite impression
to the mans mind. At last the country
mar said { Per'as the gentleman means
Horth." This proved to he Just what
the gentleman did mean; whcreup0n the
other exclaimed: "Well, then, if you
meant Horth, why didn't you say
HOrth ?"
This affords n good illustration of the
frequent variance between the orthogra-
ply Of geographical names and their
''hOme pronunciation" In England
many places whose titles are really very
insignificant and appropriate receive in
ordinary conversation among their in
habitants, designations which are not
only meaningless, but often very ridicu'
lous. And, az the original il seldom
changed TO agree with the cOlloquial
form, such difficulties az the one expert
enced by the traveller just mentioned
must often occur.
A gentleman who should desire to got to
Smithfeld would be obliged, if he wished
to be understood, to ask the way to
SmifeI. IIolburn; in popular %parlance,
il Hoburn; Hyde Park, Pard; Graves
end, Graysen; Southwark, Sutherk
London Bridge, nearly Lumbridge ;
Warwick, Wark; Norwich, almost
Norch; Now Castle, Newksul, and Biz
mingham, Brummagen. If space per
mittcd numerous other cases eli the same
kind might be mentioned.
The same thing occurs, though less
frequently, on the continent, A travel
er wishing to be directed to the CapitalO OF
Wurtemburg would probably have some
difficulty in making himself understood
if he we're unaware that the common
people pronounce the name Shtugg' TT,
while the German name for Munich
Munchen) must be turned in inter
cours with the inhabitants thereof, into
something like Minshen. F%rcnchmen,
as a rule, substitute an explosive, short
nasal sound for their geographical names
very little like what Il foreigner would
suppose to be the proper pronunciation.
In their mouths the old punning witt
cism about the loss Of the letter n caus-
ing Pai is to be "taken" (priS) becomes
almost Il reality and the Gallic way OF
pronouncing Metz is, literally, making a
Mess Of il.
We Americans are not much better
than the English in this respect, We
have, in fact, inherited a great many OF
their names in which this variance oc
ours, such as Leicester, Worcester, GlOu
cc4ter, etc. But we have also FOLLOWED
their example by miSpronouncing name
Of native origin. This is especially no
tiCrablc in the numerous American
names which were taken from the Indian
dialects, and from the French, Spanish
German and Dutch.
But to countcrbalanCe these cases, il
which the home pronunciation liz incor
rect and indefensible, there are many
others in which it is much more proper
than that adopted to the outside world
This is especially true in America
where ~ many Indian names, which are
mispronounced abroad, receive very near
ly, il not exactly, the true aboriginal
sound, Niagara is pronounced Niagara
bv all the European poets who have used
the name, except Moore; but as the
%Iroquios title (%meaning simply "a neck
and applied to the neck of land between
the lakcs), was Nedugara, it is evident
the American accentation is more cor.
rect. In the same way it is the fashion
in England, and even in many parts OF
our W country, to pronounce the name
of the beautiful falls on the Pacific slope
70 Semitic or 70 Semignt, but the home
pronunciation, iO Semeety, il entirely
in accordance with the proper Indian
sounds. The river Potomac, also usu
| ally called Potomac in England, fur
nishes an instance Of the same kind; fOI
the Virginian pronunciation, Potomac
though it does not correspond with the
original Algonkin name, is much close
to it than the other.