The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-09-22
Home Pronunciation.
LippincOts's Magazine.

A traveller who visited the old hom
of Charlotte Bronte, at HawOrth, som
years since. relates that he found it verl
hard to make peasant in the neighbOr
hood understand whittier he wanted t.
go. He tried various fanciful pronun
Citations of the name, but none of then
seemed to convey the definite impression
to the mans mind. At last the country
man said: Per'as the gentleman meaB
Horth." This proved to be Just wha
the gentleman did mean; whereupOn the
other exclaimed: "Well, then, if yOU
meant Horth, why didn't you say
| Horth?''
This affords good illustration of the
frequent variance between the orthOgra
ply of geographical names and theil
"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-
| lods. And, as the original is seldom
! changed TO agree with the collOquial
| form, such difficulties as the one expert
enced by the traveller just mentioned
must often occur.
A gentleman who should desire to go to
Smithfeld would be obliged, if he wished
to be understood, to ask the way to
Smiffel. Holburn; III popular parlance,
is HOburn; Hyde Park, l Pard; Graves
end, Graysen; Southwark, Sutherk a;
London Bridge, nearly Lumbridge /;
Warwick, Wark; Norwich, almost
NOrch; New Castle, Newksul, and Bir-
mingham, Brummagen. If space per-
mitted numerous other cases of 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 capital of
Wurtemburg would probably have some
difficulty in making himself understood
if he we're unaware that the common
people pronounce the name Shtugg rt,
while the German name for Munich
(Munchen) must be turned in inter
cours with the inhabitants thereof, into
something like Minshen. Frenchmen,
as a rule, substitute an explosive, short
nasal sound for their geographical names
very little like what a foreigner would
suppose to be the proper pronunciation.
In their mouths the old punniDg witt
cism about the loss of the letter caus-
ing Paiis to be taken" (pris) becomes
almost a reality and the Gallo way of
pronouncing Metz is, literally, making
Mess of it.
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
cester, etc. But we have also followed
their example by mispronOuncing names
of native origin. This is especially no.
ticeable in the numerous American
names which were taken from the Indian
dialects, and from the French, Spanish,
German and Dutch.
But to counterbalance these cases, in
which the home pronunciation is 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 50 many Indian names, which are
misprOnounced abroad, receive very near
ly, if 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 " neck, ,"
and applied to the neck of land between
the lakes), was Nedugsra, 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 own country, to pronounce the name
of the beautiful falls on the Pacific slope
Yo Semitic or Yo Semignt, but the home
pronunciation, Yo Semeety, is 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; for
the Virginian pronunciation, Potomac,
though it does not correspond with the
original Algonkin name, is much closer
to it than the other.