AUTHORITY IN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION. 553 



of English pronunciation will readily convince the reader of this fact. 

 This result is the direct outgrowth of the increased facilities for inter- 

 course between communities, and of the gradual diffusion of education 

 which the last two centuries have witnessed. With the spread of 

 education there go along those habits of speech which are generally 

 recognized to be in accord with best usage and which therefore have 

 most to commend them to popular favor. But till men cease to exer- 

 cise the right of choice in the mode of utterance, till men prefer, for 

 the sake of uniformity, to say exclusively hostile and not hostile, 

 servile and not servile, ' rise ' and not ' rice,'" to mention an example of 

 variant usage, so long will there probably be a diversity of pronun- 

 ciation and the consequent need for the pronouncing dictionary. This 

 consummation so devoutly to be wished we may expect at the Greek 

 Kalends. We may rest assured, therefore, that the pronouncing dic- 

 tionary is here to stay. 



Every man has his preference as to his pronouncing dictionary, 

 which he regards with more or less confidence and, may be, reverence, 

 as his final authority. To this he resorts in all orthoepical questions, 

 for final solution. This, of course, is a legitimate function of the 

 pronouncing dictionary. The fact is, the vocabulary of the average 

 educated man is so extremely limited and the vocabulary of the 

 language so extremely copious that there are thousands of words of a 

 technical character which even the most accomplished scholars have 

 never once heard uttered. The average educated man who knows that 

 English spelling is a very untrustworthy guide to pronunciation is 

 perforce driven to consult his Webster, or his Worcester, or his 

 Standard, or mayhap his Century. Only then can he pronounce an 

 unfamiliar English word with any assurance of propriety. 



Xotwithstanding the fact that every educated man has his favorite 

 dictionary, it is probably true that no man's pronunciation is in entire 

 accord with the dictionary he habitually follows. The late Mr. Ellis 

 gave a suggestive test which I believe has never been successfully 

 challenged. "I do not remember," said he, "ever meeting with a person 

 of general education, or even literary habits, who could read off, without 

 hesitation, the whole of such a list of words as: bourgeois, demy r 

 actinism, velleity, batman, beaufin, brevier, rowlock, fusil, flugleman, 

 vase, tassel, buoy, oboe, archimandrite, etc., and give them in each 

 case the same pronunciation as is assigned in any given pronouncing 

 dictionary now in use." Let the reader try these test words and see 

 whether he pronounces this short list according to any received 

 authority in use at the present day. 



It may not prove an altogether unprofitable inquiry how our pro- 

 nouncing dictionaries are made. Such an inquiry, if pursued, may 

 teach us somewhat of the methods of the orthoepists to ascertain good 



VOL. LXVI. — 36. 



