VARIATION OF ACCENT IN ENGLISH WORDS. 



BY HEXRY L. BROOM ALL. 



Ill a previous article in this journal '^ it was suggested, 

 perhaps shown, that the common error of speech conforms to 

 the same laws of linguistic development that produce the 

 correct form of language, that the persistent error of to-day- 

 becomes the correct form of to-morrow, that the disappearing 

 error of to-day was the correct form of yesterday, and that a 

 living language is alwa^'s changing as the communit}' using 

 it changes. The illustrations of this proposition, adduced in 

 that paper, were acknowledged errors of speech, condemned 

 by all good speakers of English. Such errors are not men- 

 tioned by grammarian or lexicogi'apher except for flat con- 

 demnation. The purpose of the present paper is to examine 

 the lexicographer, the assumed authority upon pronunciation, 

 to note how far, in his attempt to represent good English 

 usage, he acknowledges that there are two or more proper 

 accentuations of a word, and to show that the variant pro- 

 nunciations thus authorized, and the errors of pronunciation 

 condemned -by this authority, are products of the same lin- 

 guistic laws. In short, the variant pronunciation, allowed by 

 the dictionary, is either a survival of an old pronunciation 

 not yet become obsolete, or an anticipant of a future pronun- 

 ciation not yet acknowledged as solely correct. The variant 

 pronunciation of a word denotes a condition of instability, 

 and instability necessitates change — and as far as we find 

 the lexicographer authorizing a variant we gain his unwilling 

 testimon}^ to the standing and significance of many pronun- 

 ciations he ignores or formally condemns. If he saj's " abdo'- 

 7ne7i or ab'doincfi,'" why not '^ inqid'ry or in' qtdry ? '' Yet he 

 does not admit iyi'qidry as a variant. But such pronunciation 

 is coming by linguistic laws, just as injury has come from 



* "The Significance of Errors in Speech," Proceedings of the 

 Delaware County Institute of Science, Volume I, page 30. 



