The Portland daily press., 1881-05-10
Mt. Desert.
How the Name Should Be Pronounced


[Corr. Boston Transcript
In reply to the communication of sc. E." in
Tuesdays Transcript, would suggest that, as
Is the case with the names of most other
places, good use alone determines the proper
mode of pronouncing Mt. Desert. There was
time when a certain island to the eastward
was known as New: :found-land, but no educat-
ed person would so pronounce the word to-day
So. too, with words like Plymouth, Rum
ford, Cambridge, Botolph's-to,cn, and a host of
others which usage has softened for US in the
course of generations.
The origin of the name Mt Desert is plain
enough. but it seldom happens that the name
OF place continues to be pronounced in &C.
cordance with the original Specification OF the
word, and Mt. Desert is happily no exception
| to the rule.
. Our forefathers wrote and printed the name
OF Champlain's Island Mt. Desdrt and they
pronounced the name accordingly. The mode
OF pronunciation with the accent on the last
syllable, now in vogue among intelligent peo-
pie. is direct inheritance from our New Eng
land ancestors, as may be seen by consulting
their records, and II is greatly to be desired
that this more euphonious method may be re-
| tanned.
In looking over the Prince Society's edition
OF Champlains voyages, some months since,
happened to come across the editors sugges-
tions as to the pronunciation of Mt. Desert
but his notes failed to impress me in the same
way that they have your correspondent /
! could not but class these notes in the same cat
| egory with two others in that volume, in one
| of which the common horseshoe crab ia spoken
of as sltellish, while in the other the gar-pke
is said 10 DC q cfustdceoR F.H.s.
have read in your paper last evening an ar
ticle on "The Pronunciation of the Name of
Mt. Desert Island" which advocates and gives
reasons for pronouncing desert" with the ac-
cent on the first syllable.
do not know whether or not &c. E." is ac-
| quainted with the pronunciation Of French;
but If he is, let him say over to himself once or
twice the words "L'Isle des Monts Deserts, and
see If he does not unconsciously, and rightly
too. make the accent fall on the last syllable of
Deserts" Every one knows that the tenden-
cy of the French is to accent the last syllables
of their words, and that the acute accent SIM
| ply means that the c over which it stands shall
be pronounced like long a, and that it does not
mean that the accent of the word shall be
| placed on that syllable.
In the last part Of the article in question it
quotes from the book Of Rev. K. +. Slater,
If we follow the analogy of the language,
either French or English, it should be pro-
v, u.
| Desert and not on the last syllable as we some-
times hear it. This principle cannot be vio-
lated without giving to the word . meaning
which, in this connection, would be obviously
| inappropriate and absurd" think that il we
follow the French (and believe, that in ADgli-
cizing foreign word we should follow the Ian
guage from which it comes nearly az posi-
ble without being pedantic), we should pro-
nounce the word Desert" with the accent on
the last, not the first, syllable. / think 1t
would be pedantic to pronounce it, in English
conve' sation, "Da-zdir," as the French would.
OF course, If we translate the word, we
Should transform the pronunciation. 1t seems
to me- therefore, that person can pronounce
viously inappropriate and absurd" And ad.
vocate the pronunciation dessert"
saying "that the only correct pronunciation
of Desert is that which places vocal stress upon
the first syllable of the word. That the French
word desert has the acute accent over the first
"e'' is no argument for the pronunciation
which he advocates. The laws Of the French
language require the placing of certain accents
over certain vowels in the printing or writing Of
words; but the purpose of these accents, is not
asin English, to indicate syllables which require
a particular stress Of voice. For 1t Is we'll
known that in French there are no accented
(emphasized) syllables; but any syllable may
be emphasized as the speaker chooses Thus,
in respect to the word desert it is perfectly al
lowable in French to emphasize either the first
or last SYLLABLE. Nevertheless, because the
sense Of French words depends so much upon
their terminations, those who are accustomed
to use them naturally dwell upon the final syl-
lables In this way the French word desert, in
passing into English, probably acquired that
final accent which seems so faulty to your cor
respondent.
But good usage is the only law which gov
erns the pronunciation OF proper names; and 1t
is often true, as perhaps in the present case.
that good usage may fairly be claimed on both
sides OF controversy.
In my Judgment, the best and most general
usage places the accent on the last syllable of
Desert. Ii this old historic pronunciation Is
ever changed, trust is will be for q sounder
reason than that it violates the analogy of the
French language. D.G. II.
Cambridge.
hope the Transcript will not lend its influ-
ence to spread the ridiculous and half-educat-
ed affectation of pronouncing Mt. Desert with
the accent on the first syllable. A better
knowledge or finer feeling for language ought
to convince any one that the name cannot be
anglicized in any other way than that in which
Quebec or Montreal has been, i. e., by simple
borrowing, with such changes as the genius Of
the language, acting onconsciously, suggests.
And this is just what has happened to the
name and the result has been confirmed BY
hundred years OF usage.
The attempt to manufacture an English ex-
preston out Of it is futile, if for NO other rea-
son, because the adjective follows the noun in
French fashion, and does not precede as it
ought in English. So the name is no more
English in the new form than in the old. Tho
case OF Port Royal shows that such name
can never have an English sound, The name
is at best a corruption, In the first part from
the loss Of the plural 8, and in the second from
the position of the adjective. But in Its old
form it is a natural corruption, the result Of an
unconscious yielding to the Sprachgetlh while
in the proposed form il is an artificial hybrid.
The affectation must seem to any linguist Pc
dantic and vulgar at the same time.
In communication signed &c. E." there is,
L think, msconception. Desert in old French
does not mean desert, waste uncultivable. 1t
means clear of trees; and to this day in Canada
they use the word deserter as we do clear, in
in the sense of cutting away trees to open land
for cultivation. Ground thus cleared is called
les deserts, and instead of being uncultivabls,
is the most cultivated that can be found. As
the submits Of the mountains were cleared Of
trees, Champlain called them Monts Deserts.
AS to the pronunciation, the is accented, but
the stress Of the voice. our English accent, falls
on the last syllable, and the first has the
sound of 2. JOHN G.. SHEA
New York
A Fashion in Bellies.
The girls who are said to ''bowl down the
men like ninepins," says Washington letter,
are no longer fairy-like blondes, but are stately
blooming girls with smooth dark hair, brown
OK eyes, large and brilliant mouths, complex
ions like peach, and an expression that
oh lio.I,t Al.