The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1914-04-16
ALL IN THE ACCENT
Words on Which Common Usage
and Dictionaries Disagree.
LINCOLN AND LIEN AND LION.

Blind Mans Criticism of Irving.
There are many words SO habitually
mispronounced that the correct accent
d. e.. the accent favored by the die
donaries) would appear wrong If any
body used 1t in current conversation.
. This, of course, means that common
usagcs have overriden the dictionary
and established Il new standard which
, the dictionary of the future will have
to respect, just as those of today
respect the pronunciation of ''lieM"
that they rejected in the past. Such
words are cocaine and ptomaine which
the dictionary of the present recog-
nzes as trisyllables. thus: cocaine,
pto-ma-ine.
Anyone familiar with French-a lam
guage that may be said to possess no
accented syllables-wi 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 II jest of matrimony
II
Mark Lemon records II story about
Lord Chancellor Eldon and Sir Arthur
Pigott. The first always pronounced
/ the word lien" in two syllables. as If
it was spelled li-en the latter pro
nounced it in one syllable, lean. lust
as it would be pronounced in ordinary
conversation. on this difference Jekyll
wrote an epigram
Sir Arthur. Sir Arthur, why. what do you
mean
BY saying the chancellors lion is lean?
Do you think that his kitchens so bad as
! all that.
7 That nothing within it 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
a lien upon piece of property
8 The presiding judge was noted alike
I for obstinacy and pedantry. Lincoln
4 referring to the lien, pronounced it
lean This visibly affected his
honor.
] Lien. Mr.. Lincoln" he gently re,
mOnStrated.
little later he forgot himself and out
came the pronunciation lean"
Once more he was corrected by the
Judge.
AS you please retorted Lincoln.
somewhat nettled.
Not ms | please" came from the
bench. That is the pronunciation
favored by Webster and by Worcester
IL so obtains at Westminster hall and
also ut our own supreme court in
Washington"
Lincoln had now recovered his con-
stitutional good humor Bowling to
the court he said: Certainly. your
honor certainly. | only desire to say
that if my client had known there was
lion on his farm for so long time.
am sure he would not have stayed
there even long enough to bring this
suit. and | should not have had the
pleasure of appearing before this hon
orabc court
OF Henry Irving we are told that to
heroic perseverance and hard study he
added almost childlike eagerness to
adopt any suggested improvement in
his manner Of delivery. a blind man
once offered nm Illuminating criticism
on his ShyIock. The sensitive ear OF
tue sightless auditor detected fault
in Irving's opening line:
Three thousand ducats-well!
Fl hear no sound of the usurer in
that" was the blind mans subse-
1uent comment to Irving himself. 1T
IL No nf.., .
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,
but OF several others i'm which he now
saw that he had not been enough OF
the mOneylender
George Eliot i'm "Middlemarch" sup
plies a classic instance OF the value
Of the accent When Lyndgate, sore
distressed mt the failure OF all his pro-
fcssional and financial plans. comes to
his wife for sympathy. she meets him
with the query:
What can | doT
Wherein the author comments:
THAT little speech OF four words. like
so many others I'm all languages. is ca
pune VI expressing All states or InlnQ
from helpless dimness to exhaustive
argumentative perception. from the
cOmpletest self deyoting fellowship to
the most neutral aloOfness. Rosa.
mund's thin utterance threw into the
I words What can dog as much
neutrality as they could hold. They
fell like a mortal chill on Lyndgate's
reused tenderness
One Of On Mauriers best cartoons in
Punch shows a deferential mau Of in
curing mind prOpOunding this question
TO professional beauty:
Amt you tired OF hearing people
say That is the beautiful Miss Bel
, sizcT"
ooh, no." the professional beauty re-
plies 81 am getting tired OF hearing
people say IS THAT the beautiful Miss
BelsizeT % William S. Walsh I'm Chi
cagO Record-Herald
Try TO be something I'm the world
and you will be something. Aim at
excellence and excellence will be at