The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-15
Letters to The Editor
Prenupelation of Alabama.

Editor The Advertiser.
 Register together with its endorse ment by The Advertiser, that the legis- lature shall settle the pronunciation of the name of our State. and the ques- the world has the legislature to do with a question of language2
 Is pronunciation a function of legis- laturef Are dictionaries made by statute? now. if the legislature were & collection of savants, of learned lin- quists, of philologists and orthoepists, 1t might not seem to be so presump- tous for them to meddle with the ques- great majority of them would be the first to disclatm the possession of broad scholarship, or any special knowi decide question of this sort. And even If they were all fitted for 1t. what good would a statute do? We have seen our versatile President med we have also seen him emerge from the cloud of dust he kicked up with more wisdom and less glory. It is un- fortunate that Missouri has followed the ridiculous example set by form CT legislature of Arkansas. When the Arkansas legislature took that action. I wrote to General Albert Pike or illustrfous memory, for many years resident of Arkansas and most ac- complished lfnquishs versed in Indiana, dialects, as we'll as ancient and mod ern languages. He pointed out the de- rivation of the word, and condemned the action of the legislature.
 Now, in order to settle the comet. pronunciation of our state, would 1t not be more reasonable to select a com mission of scholars from, says the Uni leges of the state. Or perhaps better still, leave it to a committee of three, composed of Dr. Wyman, Hon. Isaac Grant, editor of The Clarke County nan,oaraf ha editor of Tha AdVAFtiH0T. who are. perhaps, of all men in the State, best versed in the musical lan- guage from which the word Alabama was taken. But even knowing how it ought to be, would not settle 1t, The question of pronunciation is an obdu- rate one, and refuses to take orders and dictionaries, much less from Tom, Dick and Harry, who happen to be clothed with little brief authority as members of our law-making body.
 Here vox populi is supreme, which, though far from being the voice Of God. is yet the only authoritative. voice. At school we were all taught to say Col-o-rah-do, and Ree-o grahn- day, but when I went to Colorado I found everybody calling 1t with the short a; and in Texas they went straight to the lazy sounding Spanish pronunciation for them! Take the name of the beau tiful cultered old town of Marion in this State. For many years called 1t with rhe long a, but wishing to be cor rect I made inquiries as to how the citizens called it as they are and ought to be the final arbiters In a question of this sort. I learned rom residents of the place that about half called 1t with the long a and the other half with the broader a.s So I wrote to the editor of The Charleston News and Courier" and asked him how General Francis Marion's descendants pronoun- ced his name. The answer was that the a in Marion is pronounced like in the word Marry So since that time l have gone with the half that pronounce 1t Marry on.
 While bahama Is very musical, and ahl-ah- bah-nla more so, risk the prediction that the great majority or with the short swift a, legislature or no legislature. .