The Meeker herald., 1914-09-19
ALL IN THE ACCENT
Words on Which Common Usage
and Dictionaries Disagree.
LINCOLN AND LIEN AND LION.

LINCOLN AND LIEN AND LION.
An Amusing Verbal Duel In the eu.
promo Court In Which the Lean
Lawyers VIII cans Int Playa
Blind Name critielssr u Irving.
There are many words 70 habitually
mispronounced that the correct accent
q. e.. the accent favored by the die
honaries would appear wrong II any.
body used It In current conversation.
This. Of course. means that common
usages have overriden the dictionary
and established new standard which
the dictionary Of the future will have
to respect, just ~ those Of today
respect the pronunciation Of ''lien"
that they rejected in the past. Such
words are cocaine and ptomaine. which
the dictionary Of the present recog
nises a. trisyllables, thus: cocaine.
pto-ma-ine.
Anyone familiar with French-a Ian
guage that may be said to possess NO
accented syllables-will understand
Taine's complaint about London res
taurants that whenever he ordered
potatoes the waiter invariably served
him with buttered toast.
And of course It was another French
man who made jest Of matrimony
by pronouncing It ma-trim-ony.
Mark Lemon records q story about
Lord Chancellor Eldon and Sir Arthur
Plgott. The first always pronounced
the word allen" in two syllables. ~ IL
It was spelled lien; the latter pro-
nounced It In one syllable. lean. Just
as It would b. pronounced in ordinary
conversation. On this difference Jekyll
wrote an epigram:
sir Arthur. sar Arthur. why. what do you
BY saying the chancellors lion Il lsanf
Do you think that his Kitchens 10 bad a.
all that.
That nothing within II will ever get fat!
Lord Eldon's pronunciation Of this
legal term was not unknown at one
time in America. Witness an anecdote
about Lincoln. He once appeared in
the supreme court in . case involving
4 lien upon q piece Of property.
The presiding Judge was noted alike
for obstinacy and pedantry. Lincoln.
referring to the lien, pronounced 1t
clean" This visibly affected his
honor.
"IA-en, Mr.. Lincoln" he gently re-
monstrated.
Every WELL" said Lincoln, But {
httle later 10 forgot himself and ont
cars the pronunciation 'iean."
O.cs more 10 was correctsd By TN
1N10a.
..As you please" rstortsd Lipcoan
pcaloWhat nsttied.
RIOT a. I pIsAss." came from thu
banch. '.That h the pronunciation
favored by Webster and by Worcester
Il 70 obtains at Westminster hall and
also at our own supreme court In
Washington"
Lincoln had now recovered his con
stitutional good humor. Bowling t.
the court, he said: Certainly. your
honor, certainly. 1 only desire to say
that II my client had known there wa
Q lion ON his farm for 80 long time
/ am sure be would not have stayed
there even long enough to bring this
suit, and l should not have had the
pleasure Of appearing before this hon
crable court"
OF Henry Irving We are told that tc
heroic perseverance and hard study be
added almost childlike eagerness To
adopt any suggested improvement In
his manner Of delivery. A blind mar
once offered an Illuminating criticism
on his shylock. The sensitive ear Of
the sightless auditor detected fault
in lrving's opening line:
Three thousand ducats-well!
II hear NO sound Of the usurer In
that" was the blind mans subse-
Quent comment to Irving himself. ut
b said with the reflective air Of man
to whom money means very little"
The justice OF the criticism was
acknowledged by Irving. He revised
his reading. not only Of the first line.
bat Of several others In which he now
saw that he had not been enough Of
the moneylender.
George Eliot In ''Middlemarch" sup
pies a classic instance Of the value
Of the accent. When Lyndgate, sore
distressed at the failure Of all his pro
fessional and financial plans. comes to
bis wife for sympathy. she meets him
with the query:
what can dor
Whereon the author comments:
THAT little speech Of four words, like
70 many others in all languages. Is ca
pable of expressing all states Of mind.
from helpless dimness to exhaustive
argumentattve perception. from the
completest self devoting fellowship tu
the most neutral aloofness. Rosa
mund's thin utterance threw into the
words What can dor as much
neutrality n they could hold. They
fell like a mortal chill on Lyndgate's