Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1883-02-01
WORDS.

One would naturally expect all
tolerably well-educated English or
American people to prfononnces the
English language correctly, but a
close observer, we'll grounded in the
authorities, will find that even among
well-read people of habitually intel
ligent associations, professional men
and laymen alike, a large proportion
are, at least occasionally, inaccurate
fin pronunciation, when Judged ac-
eording to the. received standards.
This eomes.sofseeurse, from. careless
ness and lack of observation. The
error of some lexemplar 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 hearer too indolentor too trust
full to study the lexicon for himself.
Perhaps few of lis have not been
mortified at finding now and then
how far .amiss has been our pronun-
ciation of even familiar words. Ger
tainly no one need be ignorant of
what is correct, with such broadcast
sowing Of unabridged, and smaller
forms of good dictionaries, as our
generation has seen. It will be said
authorities differ, and what one con-
demns another sanctions. This is
true only to a small extent, and will
not justify tithe of the varying pro-
nunciations that we hear. One must,
of course, have a standard, and tastes
differ in this regard, but Webster and
Worcester are the authorities gener-
ally received among us. Of the two,
perhaps, fastidious literary people
prefer Worcester's decisions in orth-
oepy, but no pronunciation sanction
ed by either photographer can be
condemned as false, though another
may be preferred, and any pronun-
citation given by both, without an al
tentative, may safely be taken as the
correct one. But turning the pages
of dictionary is both dull and con-
fusing work where one is not in
search of a particular word, but of
errors-at-large, so to speak, and
therefore with abundant means for
their correction, we go on repeating
our mistakes until something besides
a dictionary forces them upon our
notice.
The words given below are ran
don specimens taken from list be-
gun for amusement, months ago, of
words noticed to be mispronounced
by those who should have known
better, myself being one of the of
tenders, and the list has become un=
expectedly long.
Idea, should be accented on the
second syllable instead Of the first,
according to all good authorities.
A speaker said lately: "The re-
searches Of science have proved, +"
ETC., when if he you'd have searched
his dictionary he would have said
'sThe researches"
This very day two tigh1y-educated
clergymen, one Of them also an au-
thor, have, in conversation with me-
used the word often, sounding the t.
when it should be silent-of'en.
A frequent mispronunciation is
that of tiny for tiny, making the
! first vowel short instead of long, as
it is properly..
=. We occasionally hear museum
Iy-ce-um,. a-the-ne-um, etc., instead o1
: museum, ly-ce-um, ath-e-ne-um.
And we also hear italics and Ttal-
ian with the initial vowel long in
stead of short, as it should always be
; Miss Woolson, in one of her brigh
magazine sketches spells this wrong
pronunciation Of the latter wore
''Eye-talian," when she puts it int
the mouth of one of her characters
!, A well-read lady who has tive
v brothers, both professors in colleges
S told me day or two ago that a GER
J tain place was very much i-so-la-tee
(eyesolated). Webster would hav'
!, told her to pronounce it 'is-o-lated
: and Worcester, iz-o-lated.
e An exactly contrary mistake is il
= saying microscope for microscope
a The first vowel IS long.
Perhaps no words are more fre
r quently miscalled than those desig
q mating the schools ofmedicine. The,
! should be eal-lqp-athy, homeopathy
: ETC., and not al-lo-path-y and home
e o-poaEy.
v So with certain parts of the body
E mentioned in accounts Of injuries
7 Many Of us learned last summer il
{ that painful watch by the President.
, sick bed to speak of the pa-rot-ie
e gland, and by analogy would know
e that it is the carotid and not tbt
car-o-tid artery. Pursuing our phys
/ iological studies, we find that the
5 murderer sewers the jidd-gu-ar and
not the jug-u-lar vein. and that alb
do-men, instead of ab-do-men is the
correct pronunciation. s
friend lately told me that hel
) brother was i'll with brlonsh-i-tis,
He really had bron-chi-tis bron-
ki-tis).
Ally and allies are accented onthe
. last syllable, and not on the first.
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