Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-06-13
CHANGES in SPOKEN ENGLISH.

Dlnerences In pronunciation from the
Node of Couple OF Centuries Ago.
The Literary Digest quotes from the
New Saturday Review parts of an inter
esting paper on the changes In spoken
English. These are differences that only
student can discover, but if all the
mighty restraining power of printed
matter has been unable to prevent the
immense changes in spelling and syntax,
it is easy to guess that the changes In
pronunciation have been more vast
One does not, however, often think OF
that For us the quaintness OF the
spoken English of two centuries ago is
all in the construction, the style, and
the use of expressions now obsolete. AS
we pronounce all the words of the old
sentences, whatever the order of their
arrangement or the shading OF their
meaning. in the way that they are pro-
nounced to-day. we do not guess that
from the lips of those who wrote them
they must have sounded very differ
emily. Yet such was really the case;
and to such degree, the writer saws,
that the language of the Puritans
would be to us an unfamiliar tongue;
and Gov. Winthrop, could he again
come to Boston in his good ship Ara
bella as he did two and half CEN
turtles ago, and stroll up Beacon street,
would seem to use words not less
strange than his doublet and ruff
would be! The nearest approach that
we now have, says the writer, to the
language as spoken by the Pilgrim
Fathers is the speech of the raw immi-
grants from northern Ireland. And
what a shock this must be to certain
families-say, of BOston-who are now
terrible sticklers on pronunciation and
proud of their Puritan descent.
The changes in the spoken English in
two or three centuries, from about the
period during which Milton, Dryden.
Pope and Cowper wrote, are discovered
partly by the study of the rhymed lines
of the poets and partly from grammars
and word books. and it soon becomes
evident that many rhymed poem is
murdered as commonly read to-day.
The most important and notable of
the phonetic changes are those in the
Vowel sound. Thus the dipthong ca,
with the value of long e, as in cheat,
was a polite affectation in Dryden's
day in the speech of London. Not
until after his death did it get firm
footing in popular English, and even
long after Pope's time the word, was
pronounced as if spelled ''chate-" just
as an Irishmaa would pronounce it to-
day. Thus Pope writes:
Here thou great Anna! whom three realms
obey,
Does sometimes counsel take and sometimes
tea
And elsewhere he similarly rhymes
speak with take, and mead with shade;
while Dryden rhymes sea with they,
treat with skate, and so on, while one
of Cowper's best known stanzas should
be read with perfect rhyme:
a" am the monarch of all survey;
Ny right there is none to dispute;
From the center all round to the sea
I am lord of the fowl and the brute"
| The writer adds many instances to
these, and reminds his readers that in
the word yea the old pronunciation is
| still retained. The short sometimes
has the value of short i. Dryden
rhymes devil with civil, and sense with
prince. The dipthong OF was long i,
having the value that it still possesses
in choir Pope rhymes noise with cries.
join with nine. and Dryden has reclined
rhyming with joined The present
much lessened force of the T, once
rolled as the Irish still roll it, is com
mented upon: and we are told that in
this country the most correct dialect,
| from historical standpoint, is that OF
West Virginia, Tennessee, and some OF
| the back districts of New England
where lined" "suddin," ''cotch, u
'leetle," git" ''sarpint,r s'sartin,
''air'' (for are), ''afeared," fetch" (for
BRING, chuck (for throw, and
''cheer" (for chair, are sample words
still in common use.