Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-09-11

"The Pronunciation Of .U.,.

Ed. Star:-I wish to add few words to the
well-expressed remarks Of I" Amateur under
this heading. The letter u as generally used to
very just remarks. There can be no error more
grating to cultivated ears than this perversion
OF ncos for news, doofy for duty, &C., and 1t is to
hint, and try to effect reform In tho pronun-
citation Of their pupils In this respect. 1t is
intOterable English, and should be stamped out,
along with the southern ''doah" for door, "fo''
for floor "1o' for more, "sto" for store, &C., &c.
But, to return to " o." does not Amateur know
that there is reason; and some show of
and that it probably arises from feature of
one Of the languages Of Latin origin, the Span
isb, which Is component of the English? The
Dutch use tn1s vulgar a sound O. almost exclu-
English. New York was largely settled from
Holland, and hence the origin of this abuse in
fne 6ow az the ntg In New H9k
from the Spanish, their former conQuerors. In
pure Cast1ltan there Is no such sound as uou. or
our LONG sound OF u" The letter u. in Spanish,
represents always, and invariably. the sound
90; and hence they pronounce Cuba, Eooba ;
union, come one, or oon-yone Buena Boo a. nah
Which Is shortened, In colonial Spanish, by run
the sound OF our 10, thus, Bra NAH but thev
never can and never do put the sound of " be.
lore the 90, SO as to produce our yom sound
whenever IN spanish you meet the letter you
must pronounce 1t like our double O, as in cool.
A Spaniard not knowing our language on seeing
the word cut would call it ..coot" and so does
Inc Dutchman. And if the former saw the
WoTo cute he would call IL "c0o-td," giving u the
sound OF 90 and pronouncipg the final c. witch
is never silent in Spanish, as .a" He also
Wou,d pronounce our word amuse s'ah-rnoo sa -
ana the HOllander would say .'oh-1noos, making
lhe maj Silent, but giving the u It's Spanish
sound, 90.
1t 1sa pity the polite languages have not ph,.
hetic standards out II Is likely that the Spanish
comes more nearly to the true standard of an
Client Latin than even the Italian which bears
the impress Of the northern invasions. The
SOUND ie or came from the Scandinavians, and
the Norsemen prefixed 1t to the sound OF 90,
making our Anglo Saxon you which is. not
round In purely Latin tongue.
La the principles of Pronunciation" prehxed
to Webster's unabridged dictionary the abuse
In the pronunciation OF u is, think Improperly
charged to carelessness. The long sound OF a
relerred to Is described as "a compound sound
1 tba OF the vowel 90, with slight sound OF
~ H. as IN usage, cube, gales, &C" The author
Or; Goodrich says, "when the long u Is pre-.
ceded In the same syllable by any one OF the
ncu!t to Introduce the sound of y, and hence
negligent speakers omit it entirely, pronounce
Ing GUY, d0oty; tune toon; lutte, loot; nuisance.
noosdnce; suit, SCOT; thurible, thoOribte &C. The
reason is that in forming these consonants the
organs are In position to pass with perfect
ease 10 the sound OF 90, while it is very difficult
IN DONG so to touch the intermediate q; hence
this point Smart remarks. TO say tube 0yoobl.
lucid Qyoocidl with the u as perfect as in cube
cuolc mule, &C., Is either northern or laborious-
~ pedantic, "a description which applies to the
vulgar In our eastern states and to those who
are not over-nice at the south. The practice Of
good society Is to let the stink into very brief
SOUND or long c, or Of short i. Special
care must be taken not only to make this sound
as orie1 as possible, but to pronounce it I'm the
same syllable with the go. We thus avoid the
Two extremes OF OVERRIDING, on the one hand,
py MAKING TOO much of the q, and on the other
hand, OF sounding only the 90 after the manner
OF careless speakers"
Let us now see what is the history of the pro-
ANNEXATION OF the English letter T. Webster
says us true primary sound in Anglo Saxon
was the sound which 1t still retains ia most of
me languages Of Europe, that OF 90 tn cool, tool
&c, answering to the French OF on in tour.
This sound was changed to that heard In use
tuDe, &C., probably under the Norman kings by
the attempt made to Introduce the Norman
French language into common use''
Is 1t not little strange that In the portions OF
the United States settled by the descendants of
these Norman-French, the Huguenots this pro-
pronunciation OF the u should most obtain.
while In those portions settled from Holland the
90 SOUND OF u Is almost universal? This is why
| think DR.. Goodrich Is wrong In attr1but1ng the
latter TO carelessness entirely. C.