ORTHOEPY IN RESPECT TO QUANTITY.

§ 172. What are the principles of English Quantity we have seen in a previous chapter. A correct application of these principles in the utterance of words and syllables is a part of orthoepy. To say hay'-bit and soob'-ject instead of hab-it and subject is to err in respect to quantity. To say ora'-tor instead of or'ator, theatre instead of the'atre, is an error in respect to quantity, as it is also in respect to accent. See § 150.

PRONUNCIATION.

§ 173. PRONUNCIATION, Latin pronunciatio, the utterance of speech, is a generic term, including under it the articulation of the phonetic elements, syllabication, accent, quantity. If the pronunciation is erroneous, or if it is correct, it is, as we have just said, erroneous or correct in some of these particulars.

CAUSES AND CONDITIONS OF INCORRECT PRONUNCI

ATION.

§ 174. 1. Defective organs of speech. If, for instance, the lips are defective, the labial elements can not be pronounced, as in model, ballast.

2. A bad ear. When the ear can not discriminate between. two sounds, it can not be expected that the voice will exhibit the distinction between them, as, for instance, the distinction of sound between the first syllable of mercy and of merry.

3. Bad models. Children who have before them bad models will, by imitation, adopt them into their own pronunciation. In this way the pronunciation of whole communities is injured.

4. Bad habits. Habits formed in childhood often continue through life. Thus one person, though often corrected, continued through life to say suthing instead of something.

5. A bad condition of the mind. When the mind is sluggish there will be an indistinct utterance. When the mind is fluttered and disturbed, a stammering and confused utterance will be the result.

6. Dwelling on the vocalic to the neglect of the consonantal elements. This is done in the mode of speaking and reading

called sing-song. Indistinctness in the enunciation of the consonantal elements is the consequence.

7. Rapid reading or speaking. The organs taxed in this way beyond their power necessarily slur over or drop certain sounds.

8. A mistake as to the language to which a word belongs. If one considers the word anemone as still belonging to the Greek, or the word orator as still belonging to the Latin, he will pronounce the first anemone, the Greek word aveovn being thus pronounced, and the second he will pronounce ora'tor, because it is thus pronounced in the Latin language. Both of these words have in fact become English, and should be pronounced, the one anem'-one and the other or'ator. While a word is a foreign word, it should be treated as a stranger, and as subject to the laws of the language of its own country; but when it has become naturalized, its foreign aspect and accent should be laid aside. In orthography and orthoepy it should conform to the laws of the English language.

9. Mistake as to the true pronunciation of a word in a given language, after it has been ascertained to belong to that language. Thus, to know that the word debris is a French word, and yet to pronounce it de'briss, implies an ignorance of the true pronunciation in the French language.

10. The neglect of analogy. This is closely connected with the last. Though there are great irregularities in the language, and much that seems capricious and arbitrary, still there are analogies which give laws to its pronunciation. Thus, in words of two syllables, the law of analogy requires that the accent should fall on the penult, and that in words' of three syllables the accent should be on the antepenult. See § 149, 150.

11. Bad spelling. When the phonetic elements of a word are not well represented by the alphabetic characters, the true sound can not be ascertained from the written form, and, at the same time, the false spelling leads directly to a false pronunciation of the word.

§ 175. In the language there are many words of doubtful orthoepy, which can be settled only by an appeal to considerations referred to in the last article. In a given case it becomes nec

essary to determine the comparative value of some of these considerations.

1. For instance, the word demonstrate is one of doubtful orthoepy. Use is divided, the masses inclining to accent the antepenult (dem'-on-strate), and the few inclining to accent the penult (demon'strate). Authorities are divided Latin analogy favors the last, demon'strate; English analogy justifies the first, dem'onstrate. There is a class of words in the same category.

2. The word azure is of doubtful orthoepy. At least, use is divided and authorities are divided. An argument in favor of pronouncing it az-ure, and not a'-zure, is, that it thus conforms to the French, from which it is derived. This sound is, of the two, the more euphonious.

3. The word either is of doubtful orthoepy. The fashionable people of England generally say ei'-ther. The several classes in the United States more generally say e'i-ther. Here we have to compare the value of use in one country with the value of use in another country. What will help to settle the pronunciation is that the word comes from the Anglo-Saxon @gther, in the first syllable of which was the sound of e and not that of i.

4. The word wound is of doubtful orthoepy. We have heard it stated, on the authority of the celebrated Dr. Johnson, of Stratford, Connecticut, that the pronunciation of this word as if spelled woond was a provincialism until Lord Chatham, in the height of his popularity, used it in the enthusiasm of debate, whether by mistake or not, and thus gave it currency, first on the stage, and then among the people. This pronunciation of woond for wound is contrary to analogy and common use on the one hand, and has the authority of some lexicographers and of partial use on the other.

5. Ease of Pronunciation.-Upon this ground the words accept'able and acceptableness should be accented as here marked, and not on the first syllables, according to the incorrect notation of WALKER.

6. Satisfaction to the Ear.-Other things being equal, sounds, either simple or combined, which are agreeable to the ear, are to be preferred to others. For this reason, if for no other, the accent on the second syllable of the word inquiry is preferable to the accent on the first, as sometimes heard.

N

7. Influence of the Written Language.-When a language which has existed only in sounds is about to become a written language, the object aimed at is to adopt such a system of spelling as shall exactly represent those sounds, and the system is regarded as correct or faulty just in proportion as it accomplishes this or fails to do it. But after a system of orthography is established, and the language has assumed its external form, not only does the orthography accommodate itself to the pronunciation, but the pronunciation is modified by accommodating itself to the orthography. This is especially the fact where the great mass of the people are readers, and get their pronunciation of many words from books, by consulting the power of the letters, rather than from conversation. It is believed that in the United States, where most of the inhabitants get their pronunciation from books as well as from the ear, the spoken language is made to conform more nearly to the written language than it does in Great Britain.

For an application of these rules and principles to the correct pronunciation of the words in the English language, and to the graceful pronunciation of this language in continuous discourse, see Pronouncing Dictionaries, such as WEBSTER's and WORCESTER'S, and the current works on Elocution.

QUESTIONS UNDER CHAPTER VIII.

1. What is the derivation and meaning of orthoepy?

2. What relations does it bear compared with orthography?

3. What is their influence on each other?

4. Mention the four errors in orthoepy in respect to the phonetic elements.

5. Mention the four errors in orthoepy in respect to syllabication.

6. Mention the two errors in orthoepy in respect to accent.

7. Mention an error in orthoepy in respect to quantity.

8. What is pronunciation, and what is included under it?

9. Mention some of the causes and conditions of incorrect pronunciation. 10. What can you say with respect to the pronunciation of demonstrate? Of azure? Of either? Of wound? Of acceptable? Of inquiry?

11. What can you say of the influence of the written language on pronunciation ?

EXERCISES UNDER PART II.

PHONETIC ANALYSIS.

$176. By PHONETIC ANALYSIS is meant that process by which each phonetic element is separated from its combination with other sounds in words, and referred to the table (§ 118) for its description. It thus resolves the combined or compound sounds of an entire word into the elementary sounds of which it is composed, and exhibits each by itself.

In the analysis no notice is taken of the obscure sounds, such, for instance, as those represented by a in rival, e in brier, i in ruin, o in actor, u in the last syllable of sulphur, and y in envy. Only the distinct sounds are noticed.

EXAMPLES.

1. In science, reason is the guide; in poetry, taste. The object of the one is truth, which is uniform and indivisible; the object of the other is beauty, which is multiform and varied.— COLTON.

The first element is that represented by i in fit (No. 7, table § 118); the next, that represented by n in not (No. 18); the next, that represented by s in sin (31). (The letter c here represents no element.) The next, that represented by i in fine (35); the next, that represented by e in met (6); the next, that represented by n in not (18); the next, that represented by s in sin (31). (The letter e here represents no element.) The next, that represented by r in run (31); the next, that represented by e in mete (5); the next, that represented by z in zed (32); the next, that represented by n in not (18); the next, that represented by i in fit (7); the next, that represented by z in zed (32); the next, that represented by th in thine (26); the next, that represented by e in mete (5); the next, that represented by g in gun (30). (The letter u here represents no element.) The next, that represented by i in fine (35); the next, that represented by d in din (28). (The letter e here represents no element.) The learner is expected to analyze the remainder of the sentence in like manner.