Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-10

Of his school days. He resents beins
forced to work over words.
He wants life-in respect to words
to be free, open and easy, and he will
make it 50, even If he does run the risk
of being adjudged an ignoramus by his
more critical companions.
*
ct have some ivory climbing up the
side of my house." one gentleman was
heard to remark.
Good old English ivy would shudder
There is beautiful popular tree on
our grounds" said another.
Even the youngest poplar would hang
It's head in humiliation.
Let it be said again that these are
not major crimes, even In pronuncia-
ton. Too, they add to the gayety of
nations. Life Is the richer for them
but who wants to be in the position OF
making the contribution?
It Is just as easy, we say again, to
pronounce most words correctly as tc
mispronounce them.
There are few words, OF course, In
every family which are called wrongly
either by reason of location or some
popularity or other.
Those who openly and orally disap-
prove wrong pronunciations Of others
ought not to take the matter so sert-
ously. No one cares to be reminded OF
a fault in public. Often 1t will be found
that the pronunciation in question ID
one common to q whole section OF the
country. Sometimes it belongs with
certain professions or trades.
y 4 X
Certain nispronunciations one may
sympathtze with. There is "clematis,
with the accent on the "a" as in hat
R0f Dc xN,S.A IR1H& 4m 1H,atxg sal
The dictionaries say "clematis" with
the accent on the first syllable, elem.
To many that will sound stilted. we are
sure.
The old-fashioned pronunciation OF
"paeony," as 1t used to be written, was
plain "p1ney" and one may sympathiZe
with that, too, since the diphthongs are
difficult. Time changes the pronuncia-
ton of words as it changes many things
Today we say "peony" as written. Mem
bers OF Greek letter fraternities in the
seventies and eighties spoke of their
organization as "Beeta Theeta Pi" or
Phi Delta Theta" for instance
whereas today they say "Bayta Thayta
Pi" or "Phi Delta Thayta"
The way to learn to speak any name
correctly Cor any word at all, for that
natter) Is to look at 1t carefully, SPELL
ing out every syllable, especially mark
ing the vowelS. The novels are the
secret of correct pronunciation, next to
accent. One may slide over the con-
sonantS, but the vowels will out; and II
they are out improperly there is nc
escaping 1t. One may be sure that
others will note it.
Perhaps the real secret Of glaring
faulty pronunciation lies in a contempt
which many persons seem to have for
the small affairs of everyday life. Usu-
ally men and women are able to dc
what they want to do, and if they dc
not do thing, therefore, often it shows
that they do not want to do it.
Unless one wants to pronounce words
correctly, the chances are that it will
make little difference to him whether
he does or not. Therefore, he will
make no effort to take a good look al
a word or to split it into it's Syllables.
Words are things, and deserve the
same respect which good materials al
ways deserve; for out of them have
been built many of the most sublime
masterpieces of mankind. The flower
names are uniformly beautiful, and de-
serve the simple dignity of correct spell
ing and pronunciation.