The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-12-21

sounded in Shakespeare time. We should
| in several ways bring ourselves into more
living relations with the matter In hand.
! II Ia this which the author essays TO do
in the chapters which we have singled out
for particular attention. There IL no doubt
| that our language, as Shakespeare spoke
| IL, presented a set OF tone colors to the
! ear very different from those Of the mod
ern tongue. Shakespeare sound alpha
bet, or scheme Of notation for tone colors.
was distinct In several striking points from
| ours. and, unless we heed these points
| OF difference, we shall be practically color
| blind TO many Of his verse effects. Mr..
Lanier was not . pioneer In this path Of
| inquiry. Some twenty years earlier. Mr..
A. J. Ellis, an English scholar OF attain
ments especially associated with phonetic
| questions. who thus had the advantage
of a thorough phonetic training, under
| took a series OF researches which termi-
mated. a. he believed. In a substantial re-
covery Of the sounds OF the English tongue
| during the eighteenth. seventeenth. six
tesnth. fifteenth, fourteenth and thirteenth
| centuries, and even az far back AZ the
| Anglo-Saxon period. The results OF his
investigation were embodied in q work
| on Early English Pronunciation. published
by the Early English Text Society and the
Chauoer Society. A few years later
| similar. but wholly independent inquiry.
limited TO the pronunciation OF Shake
speare. was prosecuted in the United States
by Messrs. John d. Moves and Charles
$. Peiroe, who published their conclusions
In the North American Rerier for April.
1854. The results Of these independent
researches did not differ widely and Mr..
Ellis has attributed such differences a.
did exist partly to the fact that the work
from which he obtained the most direct
evidences Of sixteenth-century tones-an
old Welsh English dictionary. dating from
iA7-was not seen by Messrs Noyes and
Peirce
What, then. are the main points Of dif-
ference between Shakespeare's pronuncia-
ton Of English and our own We note. In
the first place, that In the sixteenth GEN.
fury the long would seem to have been
usually ah-not like the q In fate, as We
now pronounce it. The Shakespearean
pronunciation of IL illustrated in the
flaming OF the Shrew,' where PstrucAio
says: why. there's . wench! Come on.
and kiss me. Kate" And Luce to replied:
well, 60 thy ways. old lad; for thou shalt
hat That is to say. Kate pronounced
Kat. rhymed with hat" In Shakespeare
time. The fact is recalled BY Mr.. Lanier
that in one Of Surveys sonhets the word
small Is made to rhyme with tale.
WE'LL pale These words seem to have
been all pronounced alike, sma-all-ta-all-
va-all-pa-all. In the timesof Shakespeare.
who lived about half century after Surrey.
the q in al. or father. was beginning to be
pronounced by some persons like the
in chair. 1t is pointed out by Mr.. Lanier
that this pronunciation IL retained by a
great many persons to this day, particu-
larry the older natives Of Virginia The
sign q seems never In Shakespeare time
to have denoted the curious tone-oolor.
Ia like a French gliding into a short sound.
II now We turn TO the vowel 9. We find
that, while the short was much the same
as ours, &c was moro like the vowel In the
English and Northern pronunciation Of
the name Mary. where the vowel has ex-
actly the tone color OF in the word merry
prolonged. Long was mostly like ours
in re The diphthong - presented q marked
divergence from the modern form. In
Shakespeare time this diphthong had
HuCu tttO ooAhc OOuhu - AsC PiOiOh8cu
Of merry. Thus, in the ilsth Sonnet,
Shakespeare makes the word greater
rhyme with better the lines being
Now ind true
That better 10 by evil still made better.
And ruined love. when II Ia built anew,
Grows fsirer than ~ nrst moro strong. fas
greater
Passing to the diphthong d. We en-.
counter . sound which recalls the Irish
brogue. Thus the word receive would have
been pronounced by Shakespeare much
as an Irishman pronouncee II when he
says he has Yssoved your order. Nor IL
this strange when We remember that We
still give the same sound to the diphthong
a in such words a. vein, seine and heinovs.
The pronunciation Of q in Shakespeare's
day recalls to Mr.. LAnier the we'll -known
anecdote Of the Irishman who was invited
to settle the pronunciation Of the word
.cither.- He was asked by two disputants
whether 1t should he pronounced ssthsr
or aifher. He replied, "NaytAsr, for it's
avthsr.'
As regards the third vowel Of our alpha
bet. there are four lines in Shakespeare
which identify the sound !, the pronoun Of
the first person. with that Of eye and that OF
~ yeS). lne0o eIo INC uueS IN mo eoCOnO
scene Of the third act OF Romeo and juliet
which follow the Nurse announcement,
All. ell-a-dayl He's dead, he's dead,
he's dead!' Believing that she refers to
Romeo. JuHsa cries:
Hath Romeo slain himself, say thou hut ]. lsy1
And that bare vowel I shall poison more
Than the death dealing eve OF cockatnce:
am not ~ there be such AMI.
The same resemblance between the
sounds Of (pronoun). az (yes) and eve.
has been used by Shakespeare a. the basis
Of another lot Of puns In the fifth scene Of
the second act Of Twelfth Night
The fourth vowel. o. a. pronounced in
Shakespeare time, differed In several
particulars from ours. Words. for exam
pie, which We spell with 90. like book look.
but then were usually spelled boke. loke.
Toxic, were sounded much az a Scotchman
pronounces them at the present day.
b(u)k. LUX. t(u)k. A striking differ
ence from our pronunciation existed in
their sound Of the word one which we call
,eun, and they called Don. The diphthong
OF in the word joint appears to have been
pronounced very much as II the word was
ar,allod ts0f and rhvv,ad Nth ,:nf