CHAPTER IV.

ORTHÖEPY.

§ 300. Orthöepy and Orthography.-The term Orthöepy is a word derived from the Greek ortho (upright), and epos (word), signifying right pronunciation.

Ortho-graphy, from ortho- and grafé (writing), means right spelling.

It is well to take the explanation of these two words together.

Orthography teaches us to represent the words of the spoken language by means of letters; that is, by writing or printing. If we first pronounce a word (e. g. man, or child), then spell it and write it down, and, lastly, inquire whether the spelling be correct, we ask a question belonging to the province of orthography.

But there are a vast number of words of which the pronunciation is doubtful, being sounded differently by different persons. For instance, the word neither is pronounced in three ways: neither, nayther, and neether. To ascertain the proper pronunciation of words is the province of orthöepy. It teaches us to speak the words of our language accurately. If we first pronounce a word, and then ask whether we have pronounced it properly, we ask a question belonging to the province of orthöepy. Orthöepy deals with words as they are pronounced, or with language as it is sounded; orthography with words as they are spelt, or with language as it is written. The latter pre-supposes the former. Orthography is less essential to language than orthöepy, since all languages are spoken, whilst but a few languages are written. Orthography addresses itself to the eye, orthöepy to the ear. Orthöepy deals with the articulate sounds that constitute syllables and words;

orthography treats of the signs by which such articulate sounds are expressed in writing.

§ 301. Errors. Of pronunciation there are two kinds, the conversational (or ordinary) and the rhetorical. In common conversation we pronounce the i in wind, like the i in bit; in rehearsing, or in declamation, however, we pronounce it like the i in bite; that is, we give it a diphthongal sound. In reading the Scriptures we say blessed; in current speeech we say blest. It is the same with many words occurring in poetry.

Errors in pronunciation are referable to several heads. The man who pronounces the verb to survey, as if it was survey (that is, with the accent on the wrong syllable), errs in respect to the accentuation of the word. To say orator instead of orător is to err in respect to the quantity of the word. To pronounce the a in father, as it is pronounced in Yorkshire, or the s in sound, as it is pronounced in Devonshire (that is, as z), is to err in the matter of articulation, or the articulate sounds. To mispronounce a word because it is misspelt (to say, for instance, Chemist for Chymist, or vice versa; for I give no opinion as to the proper mode of spelling), is only indirectly an error of orthöepy. It is an error, not so much of orthöepy as of orthography. To give a wrong inflection to a word is not bad pronunciation, but bad grammar. For practical purposes, however, many words that are really points of grammar and of orthography, may be dealt with as points of orthöepy.

Errors in the way of articulation generally arise from a source different from those of accent and of quantity. Errors in accent and quantity are generally referable to insufficient grammatical or etymological knowledge, whilst the errors of articulation betray a provincial dialect.

Misdivision of syllables.—The misdivision of syllables has, in the English, and in other languages, given rise to a peculiar class of words. There have been those who have written a nambassador for an ambassador, misdividing the syllables, and misdistributing the sound of the letter n. The double form (a and an) of the English indefinite article, encourages this misdivision. Now, in certain words an error of this kind has had a permanent influence. The English word nag is, in

Danish, ög; the n, in English, having originally belonged to the indefinite an, which preceded it. The words, instead of being divided thus, an ag, were divided thus, a nag, and the fault became perpetuated. That the Danish is the true form we collect, firstly, from the ease with which the English form is accounted for, and, secondly, from the Old-Saxon form ehu, Latin equus. In adder we have the process reversed. The true form is nadder, Old English, natter, German. Here the n is taken from the substantive and added to the article. In newt and eft we have each form. The list of words of this sort can be increased.

a. The fault of incompetent enunciation.-A person who says sick for thick, or elebben for eleven, does so, not because he knows no better, but because he cannot enounce the right sounds of th and v. He is incompetent to it. His error is not one of ignorance. It is an acoustic or a phonetic defect. As such it differs from

b. The fault of erroneous enunciation.—This is the error of a person who talks of jocholate instead of chocolate. It is not that he cannot pronounce rightly, but that he mistakes the nature of the sound required. Still more the person who calls a hedge an edge, and an edge a hedge.

Incompetent enunciation and erroneous enunciation are, however, only the proximate and immediate causes of bad orthöepy. Amongst the remote causes (the immediate causes of erroneous enunciation) are the following.

a. Undefined notions as to the language to which a word belongs.—The flower called anemone is variously pronounced. Those who know Greek say anemōne, speaking as if the word was written anemohny. The mass say, anemone, speaking as if the word was written anemmony. Now, the doubt here is as to the language of the word. If it be Greek, it is anemōne.

Αἷμα ῥοδὸν τίκτει, τὰ δὲ δάκρυα τᾶν ἀνεμῶναν.

BION.

And if it be English, it is (on the score of analogy) as undoubtedly anémmony. The pronunciation of the word in point is determined when we have determined the language of it.

b. Mistakes as to fact, the language of a word being determined.-To know the word anemone to be Greek, and to use it as a Greek word, but to call it anemony, is not to be undecided as to a matter of language, but to be ignorant as to a matter of quantity.

c. Neglect of analogy.-Each and all the following words, orator, theatre, senator, &c., are in the Latin language, from whence they are derived, accented on the second syllable; as orátor, theátre, senátor. In English, on the contrary, they are accented on the first; as órator, théatre, sénator. The same is the case with many other words similarly derived. They similarly suffer a change of accent. So many words do this, that it is the rule in English for words to throw their accent from the second syllable (counting from the end of the word) to the third. It was on the strength of this rule,—in other words, on the analogies of orator, &c., that the English pronunciation of the Greek word aveuúvn was stated to be anémmone. Now, to take a word derived from the Latin, and to look to its original quantity only, without consulting the analogies of other words similarly derived, is to be neglectful of the analogies of our own language, and only attentive to the quantities of a foreign one.

These, amongst others, the immediate causes of erroneous enunciation, have been adduced not for the sake of exhausting, but for the sake of illustrating the subject.

§ 302. Standards of Orthöepy.— In matters of orthöepy it is the usual custom to appeal to one of the following standards.

a. The authority of scholars.-This is of value up to a certain point only. The fittest person for determining the classical pronunciation of a word like anemone is the classical scholar; but the mere classical scholar is far from being the fittest person to determine the analogies that such a word follows in English.

b. The usage of educated bodies, such as the bar, the pulpit, the senate, &c.-These are recommended by two circumstances: 1. The chances are that each member of them is sufficiently a scholar in foreign tongues to determine the original pronunciation of derived words, and sufficiently a critic in his own