OBSERVATIONS

ON THE

CAUSES OF BAD READING AND SPEAKING.

Too slightly sounding the accented Vowels.

One of the general faults in reading or speaking, is a short, slight, mincing pronunciation of the accented vowels, instead of that bold, round, mellow tone which forms the basis of good reading and speaking. The vowels which should especially be attended to are a and o; e is the most slender of all the vowels, and i and u are dipthongs which terminate in slender sounds, and do not afford a sufficient quantity to fill the ear, but a in all its sounds in bare, bar, war, father and water, has a bold, full sound, which the ear dwells upon with pleasure. The sound of o likewise, when lengthened by e final, as in tone, or ending a syllable, as in noble, may be prolonged with great satisfaction to the ear. It is to a judicious elongation of the sound of these vowels that pronunciation owes one of its greatest beauties.

Too slightly sounding the unaccented Vowels.

There is an incorrect pronunciation of the letter u when it ends a syllable not under the accent, which not only prevails amongst the vulgar, but is sometimes found in better society, and that is, giving it a sound which confounds it with vowels of a very different nature, Thus we hear singular, regular, and particular, pro

nounced as if written, sing-e-lar, reg-e-lar, and particke-lar. Nothing tends to vulgarize pronunciation more than this short sound of the unaccented u. Those who

wish to pronounce with elegance, must be particularly attentive to the unaccented vowels, as their correct pronunciation forms one of the great beauties of reading or speaking.

The other vowels when unaccented, are liable to nearly the same indistinctness as the u. The first e in event, the first o in opinion, and the i in insensible, terrible, are apt to go into a sound approaching the short u, as if written uvent, upinion, sensubble, terruble, while proper pronunciation requires these vowels to be heard distinctly as when under the accent.

The e in event, should be pronounced as the e in equal, the o in opinion, as that in open, the ¿ in the unaccented termination, ible, ity, and at the end of other syllables not under the accent, ought to have the sound of e, and this sound to be preserved distinct and pure as if written sen-se-ble, ter-re-ble, de-ver-sety, u-ne-versety.

Wavering pronunciation of Vowels under the secondary accent.

The secondary accent, is the laying a stress on another syllable independently of that which has the chief accent upon it, in order to enable us to pronounce every part of the word distinctly, forcibly, and harmoniously. This accent is on the first syllable of conversation, commendation, the principal accent being on the third syllable.

The liquid sound of k, c or g hard before the Vowels a and i.

There is a liquid sound of these consonants before the vowels a and i, which gives a smooth and euphonious sound to the words in which they occur, and which distinguishes polite from vulgar pronunciation.

This pronunciation is as if the a and i were preceded by e. Thus, kind is sounded as if written ke-ind, card

as ke-ard, and regard as regeard. The words which require this liquid sound in the k, c and g hard, are sky, kind, guide, gird, girt, girl, guise, guile; card, cart, carp, carpenter, carpet, carve, carbuncle, carnal, cartridge, guard and regard: these and their compounds are perhaps the only words where this sound occurs, but these words are in such continual use as to distinguish the correct from the incorrect speaker.

Polite speakers pronounce educate as if written ed-ucate, virtue as verchew, verdure as ver-dure, Indian as Indean, odious as odeous, and insidious as insideous.

The suppressing the sound of the final consonants, is

a GREAT ERROR IN READING OR SPEAKING.

The word and is frequently pronounced like the article an, both before a vowel and a consonant, as "Both men and money are wanting to carry on the war," we hear pronounced as if written, both men an money are wanting to carry on the war. It is even worse when followed by a vowel, particularly the vowel a, followed by n. We often hear, "a subject is carried on by question and answer," as if written, a subject is carried on by question an answer, and, "he made his meal of an apple and an egg," as if written, he made his meal of an apple an an egg. The best method is to sound the d always in and. The sound of f, when final, is liable to the same suppression when a consonant begins the succeeding word, particularly the th. We frequently hear "the want of men is occasioned by the want of money,' pronounced, the want o' men is occasioned by the want o' money, and "I spoke of the man who told me of the woman you mentioned," as if written, I spoke o' the man who told me o' the woman you mentioned.

The sounding of the letter R.

The letter R has two sounds, the rough or rolling, and the soft or smooth sound.

The rough r is formed by jarring the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, near to the fore teeth; the smooth r is a vibration of the lower part of the tongue

near the root, against the inward region of the palate, as close to each other as possible without coming in con

tact.

The first r is proper at the beginning, and the second in the middle or at the end of words. The r in bar, bard, card, and regard, is pronounced so much in the throat as to be little more than the Italian a in father. We may give full force to this letter at the beginning of a word, without producing any harshness to the ear, thus Rome, river, rage, may have the full forcible sound of r, but bar, bard, card and regard, should be pronounced as above mentioned, soft as possible.

Pronouncing S indistinctly after St.

The letter S, after St, from the difficulty of its pronunciation, is often sounded indistinctly. This is to be avoided by letting the t be heard distinctly between the two hissing letters. For the acquisition of this sound, it will be proper to select nouns which end in st, or ste, form them into plurals and pronounce them forcibly and distinctly until the bad habit be thrown off. The same may be observed of the third person of verbs, ending in sts or stes, as persists, wastes, pastes.

Not sounding the H where it ought to be sounded, and the

reverse.

The Cocknies generally say art for heart, and harm for arm. This is a vice similar to pronouncing the V for the W, and the W for the V, and requires a like method of correction. See head Pronunciation of this essay.

In the following words the H is silent: heir, heiress, herb, herbage, honest, honesty, honestly, honor, honorable, honorably, hostler, hour, hourly, humble, humbly, humblest, humor, humorist, humorously, humorsome. The H should have its full sound in the word hospital.

The author differs from one of our most distinguished orthoepists as to the pronunciation of the words for, from, and by. These words should always have their

single and full sounds. Mr. Walker holds that we may say, "I delivered him frum the danger he was in." It should be, I delivered him from, as if pronounced fraum the danger he was in. He says, "I wrote to a friend fur his advice." It should be pronounced as if written faur his advice. He also asserts that we may say, "He died be his own hands, or he died by his own hands." This word should never be pronounced otherwise than as if written buy.

Examples in proof.

"For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead."

How could we reconcile our ears to

"For since be man came death, be man came also the resurrec tion of the dead."

Although the author frequently differs from Mr. Walker's pronunciation, yet he considers his dictionary as the best authority for the pronunciation of our language.

The writer would be wanting in justice to the memory of a great and good man, were he to remain silent in a book like this, upon the subject of his stupendous work.

Noah Webster has bequeathed to his country and to posterity, a mighty and imperishable monument of his herculean labors, of his untiring industry, and of his extensive learning.

Mr. Webster's Dictionary is unquestionably the best in the English language, but like that of Doctor Samuel Johnson, it is not an authority for pronunciation.

Observations on the Pronunciation of certain words, frequently mistaken in Reading and Speaking.

The particular termination ed, should never be pronounced as a distinct syllable, unless preceded by d or t, except in the language of scripture. One distinction seems to be admitted between some adjectives and