The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-14

short, and often speak whole sentences
in one word, not enunciating the separate
words with distinctness.
Apart from these broad differences,
local English dialects and mere err
rors in pronunciation. the leading
variations in the pronunciation of
English cluster around the sound
given to the letter r; to the letter in
such words as class, half and grant: to
the sound of n in tune, new, ETC., as dis
tinguished from the sound of 90 in moon,
roof, ETC.; to the sound of a as in add;
the sound of e in verge, mercy. etc, and
the sound of when followed by r, as in
nor, forth, etc. OF these, by far the most
important, because of the frequency with
which it occurs. and because of the dis
tinctive character which the use Of this
letter gives to speech, is the pronunciation
of the letter r.
All people sound the r at the beginning
of a word as in run; and the Scotch often
trill the in these situations. l suppose
that all trilling of the in speech is
fault, for 1 find no good authority for
trilling it. 1 have observed that careful
speakers generally do not trill the T. In
song, musicians tell me, the should be
| trilled in certain situations; and [ take
their word for this In the middle of a
word, as in train, many people cannot
sound/ the r, and they pronounce it
twain giving the the sound of w.
At the end of a word as III war large
masses of cultured and uncultured Eng
disappearing people say wah, in various
degrees of imperfection, instead of war.
AS far as 1 am able to judge, western
people pronounce perfectly the in this
and every other position-a fact which, to
my mind, gives our western speech a
great advantage over each of the four
other varieties enumerated above. ImaS-
inc the sound of the words bird, -
heard" "her," fair" hair ETC., with
the sound of the left out, and you have
mental picture of the way in which
these words are sounded by nearly all the
English people whom 1 have heard speak
during two years in Great Britain. A
few of the English public speakers, how
/ ever, sound the r, much as we do; but the
! ability to do this seems to be acquired
! among them by careful training and per-
! severance. 1t is this use or rather this
/ neglect of the use of the letter +, that
| distinguishes at once the speech of Eng
! land, and to some extent. that of New
England and the south, from our more
fluent and more correct habitual use of
| this sound in the west. Glance over the
words in this paragraph, and you will
find that the final in words or in syl-
tables, occurs in nearly one-third of the
words used; so that, as L have said, the
use of the constitutes the most import
ant distinction in the pronunciation of
| English.
When the president of Harvard college,
Mr.. Eliot, visited Utah a few years ago,
he told, in one of his public speeches, of
the adventures of one Rupert Sadler; but
the president called his name "Rupet
Sedleh" he spoke of the ''wah'' (war)
and of the benefits of 'cultyuh" (cul-
ture), etc. Now all of this, from so emf
nent an educator, grated on many ears
in the west; and some of us fell to Won
dering, and finally to inquiring, whether
we or President Eliot correctly give the
sound of r. Should we say dear or
''deah"? (not ''deah' in the Lord Dun
dreary style, which is almost "deaw, but
with a vanishing sound of h., fair or
faih? New York or New Yoll1 or New
Yawk? Should we say weather or
weatheh? other or otheh? desire or de-
siah? AS a result OF my investigation and
observation, l say that the western sound
of is the correct one, and that the neg
lect of the r. common naturally to all the
ciSliSH, anu dlleClet III SOIIle by
the "educatahs" of New England and
the "pussons of honah (persons of
honor in the south, is a serious perver-
sion of one Of the best and firmest sounds
of our mother tongue.
While at the worlds fair in Chicago, ]
listened with the closest attention for
weeks to the pronunciation of the thou
sands there from all parts of this country
They nearly all used the western style OF
pronunciation of the r, or a close ap-
Proclamation thereto 1t is a satisfaction
to know that the speech of our children
is becoming the dominant one, and is to-
day spoken by the majority of educated
people who speak the English language.
The sound of a in the words half. laugh
basket, brass, dance, example fast. watt
etc, is intermediate between a. in fall
and in hat; but nobody knows what the
sound should be. Is it the same SOUND
as the sound of a in balm, calm, ETC.. anG
is it the same as the sound of a in harm
farm. ETC.. with the left off? Both OF
these is also intermediate between a il
fall and in hat and the sound of the a
neglecting the +, is exactly the same il
balm as in farm, according to universal
usage. What, then, is the sound of a il
pass, grant, advantage? Is it broader
(nearer a in falD than is the in balm
and harm? or is it nearer to the sound
of in at? Nobody knows. Most Eng
lish people that l have heard make tn,
words laugh. glass, ETC., almost loft, gloss
etc. while Yankee, and WeSterner anC
southerner commonly say laff Som,
dictionaries make fast, grasp, branch
come between a in balm and in ran. anC
! this is perhaps correct. though this pro