The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1882-11-29
Words Which Spell something
Else than what they Pre-
tend TO Spell.

A pls SAINT visit from Rev. DR.. Me-
Kay. OF Ellington, brought up the sub
iect of pronunciation. In giving u his
name a. a subscriber he corrected our
spelling. which was "Mckoy.' Ike
Judge Mckoy, whereas the name Is
really spelled Mckay. thoagh by the
true scotch ~broad-ned 10 Mckoy.'
Thi, called W the anecdote @: the up
country judge who went 70 tie Cape
T-sr section. and after hearing The
>h-rlff read in >inc-song stNle the list Of
Jurors" Donald Mcdonald. DuEald
McDoug4l. keithen Mckeithcn. Each
ern M~cEachern"" etc, yelled from the
Bench-~otfccr stop that ~tomfoolery.
and cali the Jury" being greatly as
toni>hed IL learn dat these were yer.t-
ALL names. II the very best citizens.
Another illustration j. now ION the
stare IN tie lovely lon-uc-. whose
debut in New \ ork has clean dated
the oscar Wilde class 81 IDIOTS. This
conversation called TO mind another
clerical friend whom We knew to he
familiar with the most noted Instances
81 shocking bad->pelI>. and lie Kindly
responded a. follows =
The English and scotch are notorious
for chopping OF their words III CONVEX
.atian. aud uttcring them - quick and
short a. to be often unintelli.ible to a
FI'al-.. 60. f,,-t.n.a EF...j.-.
the ,hitf city Of scotland. and the scotch
pronounce Il Ef}~'nbIugh, pushed out Of
the mouth with a sudden and >tron,
breath OF wind. And - the English,
VINO all pronounce their capital. LoHion,
a. if il were spelt Laa'H. B~srmntghan
they also pronounce Hrtmtgc'um, and
No,,cirh. Aoyriiys. But the names Of
many individuals are worse yet. some
twenty wears AGO more or less. there
were two mcu!bers OF parliament. n
from Scotland and one from England,
both noblemcn, whose names We're
pronounced very differently from the
spelling.
The proper spelling Of their names
was CofythpuH for the Ncotchman. and
Caoimon}eiey for the Englishman. |
wish ! could put your readers to guess
Inc before seems the pronunciation a
now Given. Who Of them would guess
Ca-hoon for the former. and Chonuy for
tie latter: And yet they were always
called my Lord Co-ho,m ana my Lord
Cbubm4. THIS viii do for foreigners.
Let IL come to Il " country. and
No shall see n similar perycr,ion III
~Iroupuuciu4 names. There did live.
and / believe there SIN lives. Il very
respectable family in Winchester Va.
whose name was spclt Egroaybty; that
i Il pretty rough name Nou Viii say, hui
then al the toNn aud all the world tiat
know the family have .moothcd the
name down aud call it Darig. Now
put EluoHghty and Uar6y side by side,
and how much are they alike: Twenty
odd wears ago | knew two families in
Louisburg. y. G.. whose names were
81 cit one way and pronounced another.
The one was spelt CrichtoH and pro-
~nounccd CraytoH. The other was spelt
ISkcw and pronounced Scalag. This
Latter name has Il very interesting. his
tory connected with the change OF name
and pronunciation. when his ancestor
left England, but it is too lon. to Insert
in this paper. There was also a minis
ter Of the Protestant Methodist Church
living in Halifax county some six or
eight miles perhaps from Littleton De-
pot, to whom ! was onc intro
duced as the Rev. M HtpkinS. Being
quite deaf, as YOU know, | toldm friend
| did not catch the name. and asked him
to spell il. And what do you think the
spelling was? Why, HcptinsthaH-that
sounds like HipLius. doesn't it: Well.
this must do for the present. ID. l..
[NoTE.-Call again, Doctor. And,
ny the by. the Rev. G.. W. IIeptinstall
is a subscriber Of the f. & NJ. and one
Of those "straight-out' Sou.heners.
YOU would like. He stood square to the
mark ten years ago. when you, and Ger
tain warm hearted ladies in Raleigh,
We're sending good samaritan baskets
to the jail gate.-ED. L. & NJ.