The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-16
Letters to The Editor
prnnmnclntIon. of AIabama.

@AN>NN1--~~@
 Editor The Advertiser.
 see the suggestion from The MoolIe Register together with us Snuot ,ls;
 ment by The Advertiser, that . tne .;o,s ieS Ss lature shall settle the pronunciatlon or the name of our State, and the ques- tion springs up irf my mind What m the world has the legislature to oo with question or languHise' of ,egis-
 Is pronunciation function or les lature? Are dictionaries made py statute? Now, if the legislature were collection of savants, or learned m. m guists of philologists and ortheoplsts' it might not seem to be so pre- sumptuous for them to meddle with the question of pronunciation. But udIG5 he the first to~disclaim the possession of broad scholarship, or any sResclasi knowledge which peculiarly HateH t them to decide a question or tnls sur what good would a statute do! We have seen our versatile President meddling with a question or ian uage and we have also seen him Smsrge from the cloud of dust he kicked up with more wisdom and less glory: it is unfortunate that Missouri has tol- lowed the ridiculous example set Dy a former legislature of Arkansas When the Arkansas legislature took that action, ] wrote to General Al bert Pike, of illustrious memory, Tor many years a resident or ArKansas g. and n most accomplished lingulst, yersed in Indian dialects, as well as ancient and modern languages. lie pointed out the derivation of the Word and condemned the action Of the Ies-
 Now in order to settle the correct pronunciation of our state, would IL not be more reasonable to select d University of Alabama, or from the col. leges of the State. Or perhaps better still. leave it to a committee or three, composed of pr: Myman, lion; aat5 Isaac Democrat. the editor of The Advertiser. who are, perhaps, of all men Tn the State, best versed in the muslcal ian guage from which the word Aiapahit was taken. But even knowing how It ought to be, would not settle 1t. The question of pronunciation Is an opdu- rate one, and refuses to take orders from dictionaries, much less from Otii, IT. nick and Harry, who happen to be clothed with little brief authority as members of our law making body
 Here Vox populi is supreme, Whlch though far from being tne it,xe xo'vT Voice. 9i At school we were all taught 10 say | Col-o-rah- do, and Ree-o- gram oay hut when l went to Colorado Iouhu eyerybody calling it with the snort ai | and in Texas they went straight to the mark with Ri-o-grand.' No musical | Iazy-sounding Spanish pronunclatioh | for them! Take the name or the peau- | tifuI. cultured old town Of Marion II | this State. For many years called II With the long a. but wishing to be cor rect I made, inauiries as 9,t to how oIf tn citizens called it fi1al as tHgg argbiters % in " 9usHi 9Gsstlon nO of this sort I learned iron residents of the place that about hal called it with the long a. and the othe | half with the broad a. So I wrotes t 1 inc editor of The Charleston New and Courier" and asked him hoy General Francis Marion's descendant pronounced his name. The answer wa | that the a in Marion is pronounce like a in the word Marry. So since tha time I have gone with the half tha ' pronounce it ''Marry-o on.
 and Ahl-ah- -bah-ma more so, FISK tn prediction that the great majority O 1 Alabama will go on pronouneinB
 with the short swift a, legislature Q
 Bon Secour.