Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1883-02-20
Words

erably well-educated Englishor Amer. t
lean people to pronounce the English +
language correctly, but close obser- 4
yer, well grounded in the authorities. t
will find that even among well-read {
people Of habitually Intelligent associ {
atoms, professional men and laymen {
alike. large proportion are, at least
occasionally, Inaccurate in pronuncia-
ton, when judged according to the re.
ceived standards. This comes. Of
course, from carelessness and lack of
observation. The error of some ex.
emplar Of early life, parent or teacher,
has been copied. and every repetition
OF it has, in its turn, helped to fix the
mistake upon some nearer too indolent
or too trustful to study the lexicon for
himself.
Perhaps few of us have not been
mortified at finding now and then how
tar amiss has been our pronunciation
lof even familiar words. G. rtainly no
one need be ignorant Of what is Cor
rect, with such broadcast sowing Of
unabridged, and smaller forms of good
dictionaries, as our generation has
seen. II will be sail authorities differ
and what one condemns another sane
tions. This is true only to small ex-
tent, and will not justify 1.-THE Of the
varying recommendations that we hear.
One must, of course, have standard,
and tastes differ in this regard, but
Webster and Worcester are the au-
, thorities generally received among us.
Of the two, perhaps, fastidious litera-
= ry people prefer Worcester's decisions
in orthoepy, but no pronunciation
sanctioned by either photographer can
be condemned as false, though another
# may be preferred, and any pronuncia'
70 ton given by both, without ali altern
% alive, may safely be taken as the cor
"A rect one. But turning the pages of {
9 dictionary is both dull and confusing
20 work where one is not in errors.at
10 large, so to speak, and therefore witt
j., abundant means for their correction
i we go on repeating our mistakes unit
4 something besides dictionary force
n them upon our notice.
n The words given below are randor
ro specimens taken from list begun fo
he amusement, months ago, of words NJ
ticed to be mispronounced by thos
who should have known better, myse
er being enc of the offenders, and til
IT. list has become unexpectedly long.
let "Idea" should be accented on ii
WI second syllable instead of the first, a
'er cording to all good authorities.
he A speaker said lately: The r.
fe- searches of science have proved" ct
yer when if he would have searched b
is dictionary he would have said: "Tl
ere re- search es"
This very day two highly,educat'
I'VE clergvmen, one of them also an autht
ide have, in conversation with me, u.s.
ne. the word often, sounding the t, VIII
md lit should be silent-ot'en.
1ey A frequent mispronunciation is tt
ery of tiny for tiny, making the iii
ow vowel short instead of long, as it
properly.
We occasionally hear museum,
!, cc-um, a,he ne-um, etc, instead OF n
49, Sc. UNI. lv-ce-um, ath-e.ne um.
; And we often hear italics aud 1t
ian with the initial vowel long inste
90 >, n
y, of short, as it should always be. M
' : Woolson, in one Of her bright mas
zine sketches spells this wrong y
< nunciation of the latter word "E
9TH talian," when she puts it into
ard mouth of one Of her characters.
say A wellread lady who has two bro