Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-09-05
Mispronounced Words.
ALFRED AYRES CALLS ATTENTION TO A FEY
OF THE MORE FAMILIAR

! ALFRED AYREs CALLS ATTENTION TO A FEW
| OF THE MORE FAMILIAR.
| There are in our English at the least
three or four thousand words that are fire.
| quently mispronounced. So writes Alfred
| Ayres in the New York Times Some of
these are the following:
| A5-a-tis. Not a-5G-tis That has been
| done for this word that should be done, as
| soon as practicable, for all foreign words
! that we use. It has been fully angliczed.
| The more English we make our English
| the better English it is.
| Abdomen. There is no authority, eX-
| cept popular usage, for accenting the first
| syllable of this word.
Abdominal The short, as in don.
Ab-er-crom-by. The Of this proper
name is not the of con, but the of come.
| Ab-iect. Not ab-ject.
| A6-ject-neSS.
Ab-Ject-ly.
absolute Not absoloot, as is often
| pronounced by the careless.
Ab-sot-u-to-ry. The dictionaries say that
| the penultimate in such words a decla-
matory, migratory, inventory. matrimony,
! dedicatory, derogatOry, natatory, category,
| parsimony, piscatory, predatory, territory,
] &c.. is OF should be pronounced like short
| n; that is, like in major, actor, factor,
| &c. Is this true? The penultimate 0 of
| these words falls, without an exception,
under rhytlimical accent, which natural
| ly does and should bring out, in no small
degree, the quality Of the vowel, though
| not in the same degree that it is brought
out when standing under a preliminary
accent. tits safe to assert that it is only
those specially schooled to slur this that
pronounce it according to the dictionary
marking. There are many that pronounce
matrlmony and few that pronounce III
ventory with the very short, OF obscure
as Worcester has it, but there are probably
none. in this country at least, that are con-
sistent and uniformly suppress this in
the whole long list of words Ill which it
occurs. To do SO is to take something from
whatever of sonorouSness the language
naturally has, as all languages are sono-
rous in proportion to their wealth in VOW
ell sounds.
Absolve. There is good authority for
sounding the of this word like 2, but this
is hardly in accordance with the best usage.
Absorb. The z-sound of in this word
should be carefully avoided.
Ab-stract-ly: Not ab-stract-ly.
Ab-strqtse. The u of this word has the
sound of long 90. This is the rule U
preceded by or the sound of sh or Of gh,
in the same syllable, often is sounded like
long 90, as in rude, runOr, rule, sure, issue.
A-6y-dos. Not ab-y-dos.
Ac-a-de-mi-an.
Accent. When noun, the first, when
verb the second, is the accented syllable.
We accent syllable with an accent.
Acceptable. In Walkers time this word
was accented on the first syllable by the
majority of the better speakers.
Access 1t is more in accordance with
the best current usage to accent the first
rather than the second syllable of this
word, Webster to the contrary notwith-
standing.
Accessory Ease of utterance has shift
ed the accent from the first to the syllable,
where it will remain.
Ac-cli-mate For the pronunciation that
accents the first syllable there is no au-
thOrity.
Accrue Here is another word in which
the u has the sound of long 90.
Acetate. The q long as in fate
Acoustics All our dictionaries pro-
nounce the on of this word oao, while near
ly the whole English-speaking world, so
far as the writer's observation goes, pro-
nounce it like long 90. Many persons thus
pronounce it knowing that the authorities
are against them. Squalor is another
word treated in like manner Acoustics
is certainly not pleasing to the ear.
Actor Not the 0 Of nor, but the of
major.
A-cu-men. Not ak-u-men.
Adaptation.
Address. Both noun and verb are now
commonly accented ON the second sylla-
BILE.
Adduce. When, in the same syllable,
long u is preceded by one of the cOnso-
nants d, t, ], n, s, OF til, it is not easy to in
troduce the sound of g.; hence careless
speakers omit it, pronouncing duty, dooty;
tune, toon; Lutte, loot; nuisance, noosance,
&c. And vet to make the in these words
as clear and perfect as in mute, cute, &C..
is over-nice, and consequently smacks of
pedantry. The two extremes should be
avoided with equal care.
Adept Not adept.
Adhesive. Do not pronounce the like Z.
Ad-iec-ta-val There is abundant au-
thority for accenting the first syllable, but
it is to be hoped that no one will be in
clined to follow it.
Ad-jec-tive-ly.
admirable; admirably.
Admiralty. The first and not the third
is the accented syllable.
A-d0-niS.
ADOBE. Three yllables-ah-do-
Adult. There is no authority for adult.
Advance. The second of this word
should be sounded broader than the q in
man, van, fat, &C., and not so broad as in
father
At the beginning of this century words
in which this so-called intermediate O oc-
ours were generally pronounced with the
full, broad Italian q, as in father, which
by the eXquisites was not infrequently eX-
aggerated. This, Walker undertook to
change, and to that end marked the a of
this class of words short, like the q in and,
man, at, etc. The innovation met with
only partial success. Now, there is gen
date sound between the broad in father,
which is very rarely, and the short in
can, which is very frequently heard in this
country. A few Of the words in which this
now receives this intermediate sound are:
After alas, answer, ant, bask, basket,
branch, brass, cask, cast, chance, class,
craft, dance, draft, enchant, example, FAST
flask, gasp, glance, glass, grass, lance,
last, mask, mastiff, nasty, pass, past,
pastor. plaster shaft, staff task, vast,