Kansas City daily journal., 1897-02-06
TO TEACH PRONUNCIATION.
New Method of Instruction Recently
introduced in BROOKLYN.

!
1 Introduced in BROOKLYN.
| From the Brooklyn Eagle
! Every Monday evening there is q gather
| ing OF women and men at the Warren
| Street Methodist Episcopal church. all anX-
| ious to speak the English language as it
| Americans attend. and there is a strong
| representation of Swedes and Germans
| whose early education has, presumably.
| been neglected. An hour is spent in what
| is commonly termed the elements of cor
| rect oral speech. The teacher is pro-
| fessional elocutionist. Considering that
| the cost of the lessons is scarcely dignifed
| by the term nominal and that the expense
| of similar instruction elsewhere is from
| 81 to 50 an hour. the wonder is that such
| an opportunity 10 get instruction is not
| more generally improved.
| The school is the only one of the kind in
either this city or New York. 1t is an eX-
pertinent or rather it was an experiment.
| l. now seems TO be firmly established. The
| movement began in New York city nearly
/ u year ago, with headquarters at Carnegie
| hail. in Il series of lectures, and the Brook
| lyn school is the first wave sent out from
| that initial splash. The originator of the
movement was Richard +. Mayne, a write
| The association is called the American So
| ciety for the Improvement of Speech.
| There are three kinds of work laid out by
| the plan of the organization. These are:
| The instruction of members, the evolution
! of principles to be submitted TO the public
schools as educators and peoples reading
classes. President Mayne, i'll speaking OF
| the purpose of the movement, said:
| ''One of the greatest defects in our COM
| mon speech is drawing. 1t IS very com
mon among residents of New England, but
| 1t is comparatively rare among our for
| eign population. The reason for this Is, as
| ] think, the lazy habits OF the Americans.
| They have come to be well Off as 4 rule,
and have settled down TO an easy life.
| The foreigners, on the other hand. have to
| talk earnestly to get a living. The first
step in affording Il popular education is
to eradicate that drawl and the next step
! is TO inculcate Il fondness for beauty oil
sound. 1t is not difficult to acquire
/ knowledge of the fact that each syllable
| can be kept separate from the others.
When the scholars are once taught TO see
| this point they have it in their own hands
to speak or read with great degree OF
"As to the public schools. they are not
entirely at fault for the quality OF the
|. speaking usually found in them. The diff
| ficulty is in the divided responsibility, as
regards school influences and horse in
| tIuences The home has far greater scope
than the school in the matter of social
speech. Percival Chubb recently, in a
lecture in Carnegie hall, showed how in
struction in the public schools IS set Dack
by failure of parents to cooperate with
the teachers in the use of correct English
LAS to diction used in everyday life, II is
a fact that excepting trained writer's the
average man uses only about one-fourth
OF the words at his disposal. He uses one
word to express many meanings. Inc
historian. MacaulaY, said that the Latin
language was a barbarouS tongue because
il was not capable of expressing shades
Of thought as the Greek was. There Is no
excuse for men and women TO be Sllpshod
in our language. 1t abounds in oppo:tuni-
ties for beautiful expression The ann OF
the society is to help everyone 20 talk.
not only in a more mellitiuouS way. but
also in way that Will make the speakers
moro easily understood
The teacher in the basement of the War
rem Street church is Waiter V. Holt.
formerly of the Adelphi academy and now
of the American College of Elocution, of
Green avenue. The methods by which he
flnA FlgE nt9r-
haps be best shown by describing part
of an evenings work. The pupils are seat
ed before him on hard wooden benches,
with books and pencils in hahd, When ne
steps briskly on the platform and smiles
by way of encouragement. He begins with
the proper pronunciation of words in com
mon use that are, nevertheless, commonly
mispronounced. He says:
How do you pronounce the word
D-c-e-n?" Be-
says: TT is an affectation to pronounce
the word, as many do. as though IL Is
spelled b-e-a.n. 1t Is pronounced as thoush
it were spelled bin, bin. Now, here Is
another word. d-e-c-o-r-a-t-i-v-e. 1t Is
Bostonese to give the accent on the sec
ond syllable. 1t is wrong: DO mot not be
cent is on the first syllable. NOW: now 40
YOU pronounce the word bronchitiS?' The
Unanimous response is that the last syi-
or says that is wrong. II is pronounced
like ~ in the word writer. The same rule
obtains IN the WOThS llS5lbiS' dB
pendicitis." and all words ending in tits
Words ending in "ain' should be pronounc-
ei like in" Brooch" an article or orna,
ment. is pronounced as though spelled
breach" The division of syllables is III
sisted upon; civil should be pronounced
civil" and not civic" pencil is pen
cil and not ''pencle''
Now" says Mr.. Holt. "how do you pro-
nounce dcvil?" 49, =,
The answer comes promptly, "devle;"
That is where the answer is wrong, Inc
professor says. The pronunciation is dev-
H." He goes on to say that column IS
column" and never ''colume ncynosure'
is pronounced as though spelled .sino:
sure: ''sinecure" is not sinnycure, but
has the 'ir long. The word aunt is not
like '.awnt" nor is it like ant" but like
"a in father Dog" is not ''dawg,' but
like the % in hog. In this way the teacher
in a very short time goes through long
list of words.
The latter part of the lecture was an e3;-
ercise in reading, each of the persons pres
ent taking Il turn ut Il sentence of poem
by Iongfellow. After the sentence mad
been read the instructor pointed out where
tho expression of the poets meaning might
have been improved. When any showed
DISPOSITION to avoid possible smiles from
the audience the teacher would say: Re
member | am the one to make the run,
not YOU" InterSparsed in the lectures
were inspiring phrases like. Words are
pictures painted on the mind" If We are
frank and true our melody as We speak
will be beautiful.