AUTHORITY IN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION. 54 7 



It will prove interesting to consider some of the pronunciations 

 authorized by the early orthoepists as reflecting contemporary usage. 

 How unlike current usage many of those early pronunciations are, 

 the reader will see for himself. But first a word as to the orthoepists 

 themselves. 



The earliest of the eighteenth century orthoepists is Baily. His 

 dictionary enjoyed the enviable distinction of being the first authority 

 on English pronunciation during the first half of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. But Baily's supremacy was eclipsed by Johnson, whose epoch- 

 marking dictionary appeared in 1755. Johnson claimed to record the 

 most approved method of English orthoepy, and his prestige as a man 

 of letters contributed speedily to establish his dictionary as the ultimate 

 authority on English pronunciation. It is to be observed, however, 

 that Johnson only indicated the syllable on which the accent falls. 

 This left much to be desired as a pronouncing dictionary. So, in 17GG. 

 Buchanan, a Scotchman, gave to the world his dictionary which chal- 

 lenged Johnson's pre-eminence. A few years later, in 1780, to be 

 accurate, Sheridan published his dictionary. Sheridan was an Irish- 

 man by birth, as has been said, the son of the famous British orator 

 and dramatist, Bichard Brinsley Sheridan, whose plays are so favor- 

 ably known to us through Mr. Jefferson's interpretation. Sheridan's 

 nationality was used by his competitors to prejudice the public against 

 his dictionary and to discount it as an authority on English pronuncia- 

 tion. Still Sheridan enjoyed a considerable vogue. 



In 1791 Walker published his dictionary. The reputation of this 

 work, in a revised form, extended far into the last century, so we are 

 informed by the late Mr. Ellis in his authoritative work on English 

 pronunciation. Walker, like Sheridan, was an actor, but unlike his 

 rival he was an Englishman by birth. He did not fail to draw atten- 

 tion to the advantage this circumstance would naturally give him in 

 the popular estimation, in advertising the merits of his book. In his 

 treatment of the principles of pronunciation, however, Walker shows 

 a feeble grasp of his subject, and the most serious criticism upon his 

 book is that he was unduly influenced by the spelling in ascertaining 

 the pronunciation of a word. " In almost every part of his principles," 

 says Mr. Ellis, an eminent authority on English pronunciation, speak- 

 ing of Walker's work, " and in his remarks upon particular words 

 throughout his dictionary, one will see the most evident marks of in- 

 sufficient knowledge and of that kind of pedantic self-sufficiency which 

 is the true growth of half-enlightened ignorance." Such drastic criti- 

 cism upon the author of a dictionary which was esteemed the highest 

 authority on English pronunciation during the first half of the last 

 century does not invite confidence in the results of our early orthoepists. 

 Rather it makes us feel that none of them is perhaps entitled to credit. 



