Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-06-02
RnIrlsH PRnPER NouNs.
bn1nr PuzzIinE En0antriuities 81 Pre-
nunrtnttnn.

II the cultured EnEllhhmun wants 10
realize how ignorant he really Is. said
Mr.. Andrew Lang the other day, lei
him try 10 pronounce selected list
OF. say. a hundred English proper
names he will certninly he entitled
10 PAT himself ON the back II he SUE
ceeds In prunouncing O score nf them
M all correctly" And indeed a
score would be a most Creditnble pro
portion. as our readers Will admit he-
fore they have reached the end Of this
short article, which may. perhaps, he
Instructive as well AZ interesting.
OF course. there are certain eccentric
pr0nunciH1ions OF well-knOwu names
which would not present any obstacle
10 most men, such a. Grnsvenor, Beau
champ CholmOndeley and F8ruuhar-
son: Renter comes readily 10 the lips
nnd so do such names as lie QuenX
and Marj0ribHnks, bun let rs get away
from the select and familiar circle
and we shall soon find ourselves on
ueacherous ground although the land
marks are ali familiar enough 10 the
eye. Ii is not by any means every
man who Knows that LevesOn-Gower
is properly pronounced LOosOn-Gore:
that q well-knOwn general is called by
his friends hayden POel; that another
popular soldier is rightly addressed as
Pool Carey, or that Lord KnOllys, the
Kings private secretary. Is known as
NOles.
Then who. without special enlight-
eminent, would pronounce Dalzell, Dee
ell; ClaverhOuse, Clayverse; or GllZean
Gil-een. although he would certainly
convict himself Of ignorance if he
failed to do so? How many. 100, Of
the thousands who are familiar with
the names of Mr. BOurchier, the actor.
or Mr.. Carnelrie the Taatliiouasairs=I'isiAssr'
thropist. give them the correct pro
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and Carnay-
ghie. with the accent on the second
syllable: or vino pronounce Aber-
gaveuny as Ahergenny, AnEuuther ms
Anster, or Beaulieu as BewlyG
Why. in the name of all that is ren-
sonable, should Home be changed INTO
Hume and Hotham into Huffman, and
why should Jervis become JARVIS,
while Jervois is Jervis? Keighley is
pronounced Keely by all except the
good people who live in thar York
shire town. and they call il Keethiy
while Keightly is, 10 those who know
Keetly. Pulteney loses the u ana
becomes Pole-tny: MagheramOrne
tr nh OF
10 Maramorne: while Ruthven, FOR
some equally obscure reason, is meta
morphized into Rivven. Sir Claude de
Crespiguy answers 10 the name Crep-
piny; Lord Bury, heir 10 the Earl of
AIbemarle is addressed as Berry; but
Bury. the family name Of the extinct
earldom of Charleville. is Bewry
Carew is Carrie or CARGO, just as you
please; Cassillis is Cassels; but Cheyne,
as most of us know from the famous
Row of that name, is Chayney. Urqu-
hart is shortened into Urkurt; Naux
becomes V0x land nothing more; the
hunter of big game is not MIR. Selous
but Mr.. SelOo; Lord Vallerort Is Val
leyt0rt. and Lord Jerseys family name
is Villers. Let us never make the mis-
take of pronOuncing Smith as il is
spelled: smythe, We must call II, just
as well must address Mr.. Sandys as
Sands: Mr.. ScrymgeOur, that good old
Scottish name, as Scrimier, and Mr..
Tyrwhitt as THRIFT, TO rhyme with
spirit MenZies is not what is seems
in prtnt-it is Ming-ies or Meen-yes;
Nieux degenerates into News. while
Lord WemysE would not know he was
addressed unless you pronounced his
tt+la Waans: -VOu must always call
MI. WrlOthesIey either EiOthsly or
Roxy, whichever best pleases him. and
do not forget that MI. Terburgh an
swers 10 the name OF Peterborough,
Ouless and Ool-esE tthe correct pro-
nunciati0nj are near enough 10 pass
unquestioned, but why should Penne
father in print become Pennyfeather in
speech? Why is Meyrick transformed
10 AIerrick and Rothes to R0th-is, the
9th" being suggestively pronounced
as III the word bother" BE sure to
pronounce Bellingham with q soft g
-b6ltIlJfiLLs NTcoShCSu44t LAAA AoAoA-
nble Irish name, as Gay-gun, or Gee
gun; and ST. Leger as Sillenger; while
we must he equally careful 10 speak
Of Lord Coke as Cook; of Mr. Feather
stonhaugh as Mr.. Festunhaw, or Fan
shaw Though Fetherstun-haw would
pass musterj and Lord lngestre us In
gestry. And. 10 give but few more
examples of these eccentric prOnuncia-
tions. if we are to pass as men of the
world and of knowledge We must
never fail TO pronounce Foljambe as
Fo0l-iam; vOules as Voals; Dillwyn as
Dillon, Belvoir as Beever, and BERTHE
as Barty.-London Tid-Birs.