Crawford.— "On the Ma >i Language. 58 



Fyne, and who kept his passengers in roars of laughter during 

 the journey, chiefly from imitations of Cockney tourists. One 

 of his stories was of a Cockney, in affected tones, asking : 

 " Coachman, which is the way to Straechur ?" the ch pronounced 

 soft; " Strachwr, Sir, I suppose you mean." 



When an Englishman is remonstrated with on his pro- 

 nunciation ol the name of a foreign place, he is apt to say, 

 " Would you pronounce such names as Paris and Calais as the 

 French do ?" This shows a want of appreciation of the point. 

 Pronouncing the s in Paris and Calais is quite legitimate, as 

 hringing the names into reasonable accord with English ; but if 

 we should say Paeru or Faerais, or Caelais, in accordance with 

 what is often done, the damage is evident. A single vowel ought 

 never to be employed to express a diphthongal sound. We 

 must not have i to represent ai, nor u, in. In English eiv is 

 used to represent in in mew, pew, stew, new ; consequently we find 

 this clumsy arrangement applied to Tewjfik, which ought to be 

 spelt Tiufik. 



One may hear educated Englishmen say that every nation 

 has its own way of pronouncing Latin. This, as an excuse for 

 English pronunciation of that language, is nonsense. Each 

 foreign nation makes some slight variation, but each has fixity 

 within its own lines. Thus we know how an Italian pronounces 

 u, and how a Frenchman modifies the sound; but it is not 

 varied within the nation. In English Latin no one can tell how 

 u, or any other vowel, is to be pronounced. The English are 

 generally supposed to be sensitive to a sense of the ridiculous ; 

 but how an educated Englishman can venture to quote Latin 

 in the presence of a foreigner baffles comprehension. The effect 

 must be inexpressibly ludicrous, on the supposition that the 

 foreigner can comprehend the utterance. Possibly he takes it 

 for some unintelligible gibberish. The difficulty of teaching a 

 correct pronunciation of Latin lies with the masters. I remem- 

 ber the attempt being made at a New Zealand College, but the 

 false system had become so engrained in the masters that they 

 seemed incapable of throwing it off. One of them, a graduate 

 of Cambridge, told me that they had improved ego into eggo ! 

 Out of the frying-pan into the fire. If the masters once learnt 

 their business there would be no difficulty with the pupils. 



The Latin of any Continental nation is understood by the 

 scholars of any other : that of the English is intelligible to none. 



One point in the reform of English spelling is very im- 

 portant, and would tend to obviate many changes. This is, 

 instead of altering the spelling, to revert to a correct pronuncia- 

 tion. Apart from such matters as the pronunciation of Scripture 

 names, I would instance such words as natal, fatal. Instead of 

 altering the spelling to naetal, faestal, would it not be much 

 better to pronounce them correctly, with the broad a. It is 



