Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-10-19
ENGLISH A MUSICAL TONGUE.
r0calism Necessary to Produce the
True Values OF Words-The
Singing Quality.

Nine. Florenza dArona, contribut-
ing to the Musical Courier series of
articles on English as a musical
language, gives an instructive list of
ZONE of the faults of pronunciation
she has found in her American pupils:
The words searth," ''dirt," third"
<mirth." etc., are twisted to ear-eeth,
dir-eat, thir-ede, mur-eeth, etc. In Il
Know That My Redeemer Liveth," you
hear land though 'wur-emes,' etc.
which may perhaps be more realistic,
for never heard the word sung that
way that I don't feel the creatures
wriggling in and out of my body, but
it is a realism I, as well as others.
would prefer to dispense with, that we
may not be deprived of the beauty of
the sentiment. The word shall" is
frequently pronounced she-al in sing
ing, the word might" nigh-eat, dwell
ing upon the 'eat," instead of upon the
"i," and to be finished with a tongue
tip "t'' at the end of the sound. The
letter "y," used between the letter go
and "e," as with our years." instead
of with our ears" ETC.; the letter 90
pronounced "or," as s'corfee," instead
of coffee Ca great Chicago FAULT;
the leaving off of 'g," as at the end OF
singing" bringing feeling etc.;
pronouncing strength "strenth," FEB
ruary 'Febuary;" the omission of the
aspirated "H" (Which is one of the
greatest drawbacks to tone freedom),
and the substitution of "y," as "be-
yold" for behold Gotten and often
heard in oratorio in the United States);
the dropping of the final 'st's' and in
distinct commencing consonants. The
substitution of ''e'' for \'.i'' is most
common fault, such as "selk," "melk,"
ETC., instead of silk, milk, etc. The
trilling of the epiglottis or uvula for
an ST." leaving off the roll of the "r, y
in such words as care. rare. bare, fair,
ETC., and rolling the s'r'' in Lord, which
is a grave fault, as is also commencing
all "l's' with precedent sound of "ul. .
as "ul-Lord," or ''pur-ray" for 'pray."
The chief vowels are a, e, i, o, u. The
"a" has four sounds, "a" in hay, ga" in
mast, ga" in rather (ah), and ca in
saw. "E'' has two sounds, 'te' in bee,
and Sc" in fed. 'sI'' has two sounds, as
in sigh and kid. s'O'' has two sounds,
go (oo) Gin America), but should only
have one sound in go and one in "hod -
l'sU," four sounds, IS in cute, bud, mule
and full. Diphthongs almost always
pronounce their full sound at the very
end of a word. The singing quality
joining two vowels together should
lpartake a little of the sound of each,
and be so delicate that the word dies
laway even, with clean pronunciat:o
of the last consonant.
The attack of consonants in speech
and song need the hammering of the
tip of the tongue at the hard palate,
and not the movement of all the chest,
throat and tongue muscles. Let the
body keep still, and watch the power
of the tip of the tongue attack, as in
the word lab, lay, lee. low, loo; no "ul''
before the words, remember, but a
clean, crisp attache of the 81" See
that the vowels do not recede back
into the mouth, but cling to the first
consonant; and that word is like
the shot out of gun, and not, like
lpower, distributed all over. Don't lin,
ger over the consonant in singing, but
dwell upon the vowel only. The words
"butter," .'ips,' Stomach" etc., pro
) nounced "but'' front of lips, and ''ter'
in the throat; clips" pronounced
''lieps" Clips and throat, fault I la
bored a long time with pupil to con
quer), and stomach" pronounced
''stumick.'