The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-26
CHARM OF SPEECH.
Protest Against Our More Pronounced
LinguaI InfeIicities.
New York Home journal.


render them plcasingly effective in their several
aesthetic and scholastic provinces, have been
puzzled TO understand by what oversight or for
what reason one Of the most important function
aries, the tongue, is excluded from the discipline
necessary to render it graceful as well as
faithful messenger Of the mind.
For evidence of the baneful effects of this neg
ligence, one does not need to visit the school
room, where every third pupil uses this organ as
clumsily as the novice in The gymnasium does
his limbs. inasmuch almost any large social
assembly furnishes instances in a pitiably large
proportion to those whom a natural felicity OF
utterance eXempts from criticism. Here one
sometimes finds united in person splendid
results Of the dancing masters skill. Vecal or
gans trained 10 emit the most difficult trlll tiny
hands disciplined to compass with ease feats IN
Bach and Beethoven, ears cultivated to an eX-
quisite sensitiveness to a false note,
eyes Injured to nice discrimi-
nation of the beauties of art, mental
faculties spurred into activity by early discipline
in mathematics and the classics. minds stored
with an ample knowledge of science, history lit
e1ature, and the modern languages, while the
one little organ, the courier. whose mission it is
to carry the minds splendid stores into hearing,
perhaps goes galloping with the recklessness Of
an unbroken colt, carelessy dropping its conso-
nants, running its words together till they are
scarcely distinguishable, and now and then let
ting fall whole syllables in its haste, while per-
haps another resembles in its pace the jog trot
of superannuated roadster, limping and STUN
ing dlOnS unII une listener, WlJn patience eA-
hausted, is willing to accept on credit the own
ers mental stock.
The story of Demosthenes and the pebbles is
hackneyed, but it serves to illustrate the import
ance which the Greeks attached to graceful elo-
cutlon. DiSheartened by repeated humillatlons
in his early career, DemOsthenes learned that his
defective enunciaton was largely responsible for
his defeats All are familiar with the eXpedi
ents he adopted for graduating the defects and
his ultimate success.
IF inf. 1sIbOca WIN
We're familiar with the clearness melody and
feXibility of Mr. Wirt's voice when at the height
of his fame, and his distinct, emphatic, and UNI
embarrassed pronunciation, may be surprised to
learn that wnen he entered on the practice of his
profession his utterance was thick his tongue
clumsy and apparently too large, his pronuncia-
ton of words clipping, and when excited by feel
ing his voice manageable; sometimes bursting
out in loud, harsh, and indistinct articulation.
All this he overcame through cultivation"
Probably no one will question the desirability
of cultivatng a distinct articulation, but the
practical consideration of the next step in per
feet spealIing-that of accents not infre-
quently objected to as ostentatious minutiG, even
by those who make a particularly of finding
teacher of foreign language who speaks the Ian
guage in its greatest purity.
So unquestionably has the palm for accuracy
and elegance in France been awarded the Partisan
that the astute French teacher is careful to ad-
vertise only, PARTISAN French"
The question naturally arises: where is the
American scat of accent undefiledl Certainly,
the standard cannot be defined by any geOg1aph-
zeal boundary. Probably fewer deficiencies, as
also greater refinement of accent, are to be
found among New Englandcrs of high and even
average culture than among the corresponding
classes of other localities. Here distinct utter
ance of the middle consonants, a softening of
the VoWelS and a discreet use of the Italian "a
invests common place remark with grace that
a sentence of the choicest wording will fail to
attain which falls from the lips of the native of
other portions of America. For instance, the
words fountain" mountain" and 'gentle
man. the New England tongue will make
euphonious by giving each its sound, while in
other localities the same letter is apt to be
slurred until the last syllables of fountain and
mountain degenerate into grunt, while gentle
men is too often contracted into two syllables.
In like manner the Eastern well as the
Southern tongue has no difficulty in compelling
its muscles to meet the exigeneies of the short
sound of i in Sit" which mere clumsy tongue
makes ut. In New England alone does aunt
not become ant, can't cant, laugh
laf, etc. But the intractibility of
the Eastern tongue is discovered
in its resistance to the claims of the letter +,
which is so customarily ignored that the uninit
ated begin to doubt the physical ability of the
Yankee lingual muscles to accomplish its utter
ance when the fallacy of such conjecture is not
intrequently proved by the ear of the listener re-
ceiving an unpleasant jar by the tumbling of
+ after final a. which dstorts idea into dear
and sofa" into sofar, while the same tongue, ac
tuated by some curious freak, jumps over the
intervening rs IN word with bound bringing
its oscillations to sudden halt before terminal
L, which abrdges summer" into sunma, and
winter into winta.
The Southernor, while exempt from the former
error participates i'll the fault of dropping his rs
to even greater mutilation of his words With
him more and door are abbreviated Into
mo and "do," which his Eastern brother sim
ply changes into noah and doah
Westerner. on the other hand, prolongs this
letter to painful drawl. 1t is, perhaps, the
most unwieldy letter in the alphabet to articu-
late properly, and its influence over spoken Ian
guage is so decided that the latter suffers by
either of the extremes instanced
While the Southelner comes off triumphant
with his long H. to which less agile tongues give
the 90 sound thus robbing duty Tuesday"
and kindred words of their euphony, it seems to
be local caprice to prevent the in such
words as house, mouse and about into something
which barrel escapes the sound of hOose, moose,
and ABBOTT, but which become so in the mouths.
of the less adroit imitators of Southern dialect
Another gross violence against orthocpy among
Southerners is a tendency to despoil the word
'here" of its softness by pronouncing it hcuh
The Western tongue is sluggish. and moves
with fine disregard of Hamlet's advice to the
player, Speak the speech trippingly ON the
tongue" Its enncatiOn, in consequence, is
characterized by negligence, often accompanied
by drawl which many times has plunged re
ally fine discourse into the depths OF mOn0tony.
the Westelner of any type vanquisheS
all in the arena of ''ings," which he never fails
to bring out intact consequently he is never
guilty of vulgarizing coming and going into
comm and goin'.
Many who have the disposition to emerge
from these infehcities and ingraft their tongues
with the graces Of each locality are restrained
by morbid fear of appearing affected" With
equal wariness might one resist all the influences
of the refining arts which transform the crildi
ties of mind and manner into pleasing state
If we stop to analyze the fascination which
professional artists exert mankind, we shall
find that it is largely due to the charm of accent
To what extent would our sympathies be en-
listed in the rhapsodieS OF Claude Mclnotte or
David Garrick which fell from a bungling
tonguef Our schools might with infinite profit
borrow the methods of the stage for the training
of this much neglected member, nowhere else
do we find such models of perfect utterance.
The study of elocution under iudicous direc-
ton and followed up by careful selfschoOling is