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finement; but this, being too refined for the general ear, is now but 

 seldom heard.' This French pronunciation, however strange the com- 

 ment may appear to us in view of his wide acquaintance with English 

 usage, the late Mr. A. J. Ellis averred was the most familiar to him. 

 So the struggle between the several pronunciations of vase continues 

 still, and no one can say which will ultimately prevail. 



Another interesting illustration of vacillation of usage two cen- 

 turies ago is furnished in the pronunciation of either and neither. 

 Like the word vase, these words show incidentally how long a time two 

 pronunciations of the same word may linger in good usage before either 

 supplants the other. There is to-day probably as much variation in 

 the pronunciation of either and neither as there was a century and a 

 half ago. Early in the eighteenth century the i sound was conceded 

 by some of the orthoepists as permissible in these words. Two authori- 

 ties, Buchanan and Johnston, declared for the new pronunciation, that 

 is, ' ither ' and ' nither.' But since they were both Scotchmen, their 

 authority was discounted. On the other hand, Sheridan and Walker 

 recommended the e sound and used their influence to bespeak for it 

 general endorsement. They recognized the i sound, to be sure, but only 

 on sufferance. From that day to the present the battle has waged more 

 or less fiercely between the advocates of these respective pronunciations 

 of either and neither. Which will ultimately prevail, it is impossible 

 to determine. It may be said, however, that analogy and history are 

 on the side of the e sound. Yet the t sound appears to be encroaching 

 at present on the former pronunciation. There is still another pro- 

 nunciation of these words which we now rarely hear. I refer to the old 

 dialectical pronunciation as ' ather ' and ' nather.' This pronunciation 

 was current in Doctor Johnson's time, though it probably did not enjoy 

 the sanction of good usage. On being asked one day whether he re- 

 garded ' ither,' or ' ether ' as the proper pronunciation of either, the 

 old Doctor is said to have blurted out in his characteristic crabbed 

 manner, ' Nather, Sir ! ' This pronunciation survives now only as an 

 Irishism. 



Another class of former pronunciations surviving now as an Irish- 

 ism, or at best as a provincialism merely, is exemplified by such words 

 as nature, creature and picture. In Dryden's and Pope's time these 

 words were pronounced ' nater,' ' crater ' and ' picter.' These pro- 

 nunciations are preserved still in the Yankee dialect, as shown in 

 Lowell's inimitable Biglow Papers, and of course they are frequently 

 heard on Irish lips. But they long ago dropped out of the speech 

 of polite society. There is one notable exception found in the word 

 figure. The variant pronunciation of this word as ' figer ' survives in 

 standard English as a heritage from the seventeenth century. 



Quite as instructive an illustration of survivals in pronunciation is 



