The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-10-05
Home Pronunciation.

A traveller who visited the old home oi
Charlotte Bronte, at Haworth, some
years since, relates that he found it very
hard to make peasant in the neighbor-
hood understand whittier he wanted tC
go. He tried various fanciful pronuncia'
tiOns of the name, but none of them
seemed to convey any definite impression
to the mans mind. At last the country.
man said: operas the gentleman means
Horth." This proved. to be just what
the gentleman did mean; wheIeupon 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 orthOg-
raphy of geographical names and their
"home pronunciation" In England
many places whose titles are really very
significant and appropriate receive in
ordinary conversation among their in
habitants, designations which are not
only meaningless, but often very
ridiculous. And, as the original is sell
dom changed to agree with the colloquial
form, such difficulties as the one ex-
perienced by the traveller just mentioned
must often occur.
A stranger who should desire to 60 to
Smithfield would be obliged, if he
wished to be understood, to ask the way
to Smiffel. Holburn, in popular parlance,
is Hobuln; Hyde Park, I Pard; Grave
send, Graysen; Southwark, Sutherk !;
London Bridge, nearly Lumbridge
Warwick, Wark; Norwich, almost
March Newcastle, 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 fire.
quently, on the continent. A traveller
wishing to be directed to the capital of
Wurtemberg would probably have some
difficulty in making himself understood
if he were unaware that the common
people pronounce the name 'Shtugg'rt,
while the German name for Munich
(Munchen) must be turned, in inter-
course with the inhabitants thereof, into
something like Minshen. Frenchmen, as
rule, substitute an explosive, short,
nasal sound for their geographical names,
very little like what foreigner would
suppose to be the proper pronunciation.
In their mouths the old punning witt
cism about the loss of the letter causing
Paris to be "taken" (pris) become almost
a reality; and the Gallo way of pro-
nouncing Metz is literally, making a
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
occurs, such as Leicester, Worcester,
Gloucester, etc. But we have also
followed their example by mispronounc-
ing names of native origin. This is es-
pecially noticeable 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 indeiensible, there are many
others in which it is much more proper
than that adopted by the outside world.
This is especially true in America, where
many Indian names, which are misprO-
nounced abroad, receive very nearly, if
not exactly, the true aboriginal sound.
Niagara is pronounced Niagara by all
European poets who have used the name,
except Moore; but as the Iroquois title
(meaning simply ga neck" and applied
to the neck Of land between the lakes,)
was Nedugara, it is evident the Ameri-
can accentuatiOn is more correct. In the
same way it is the fashion in England,
and even in many parts of our country,
to pronounce the name of the beautiful
falls on the Pacific slope Yo Semitic or Yo
Semight, but the home pronunciation.
Yo Semeety, is entirely in accordance
with the proper Indian sounds. The
River Potomac, also, usually called
Potomac in England, furnishes an
instance of the same kind; for the
Virginian pronunciation, Potomac,
though it does not correspond exactly
with the original Algonkin name, is
much closer to it than the other form.