40 BROOM ALL : VARIATION OF ACCENT. 



national, and under the influence of the French pronunciation 

 we hear atitomobile' (i = ee). Some still hold to the adjective 

 pronunciation and say automo'bile. The word, too, meets 

 with difficulty in English because it has four syllables — two 

 or three too many for an active English noun. Sporadic 

 attempts at clipping have already begun. We hear rnito, 

 mctoist, auioing — just as cabriolet has been cut to cab and 

 omnibus to bus. The chaffeur himself avoids the word and 

 calls it machitie, motor or car. The thing is seen in use by all 

 and the community — unknown to its individuals — is experi- 

 menting with its name and will finally select a modifica- 

 tion or substitution in conformity with the laws of English 

 phonetics. After the selection has been made by the com- 

 munity, the dictionary will take notice and record the new 

 accent, the new abbreviation, the new word, or the new mean- 

 ing of an old word, as the case may be. It will first admit 

 this new term as "colloquial," or "sometimes heard," or 

 "usually," or even " among chaffeurs," then as a real vari- 

 ant in pronunciation or meaning, and so on through the pro- 

 cess of legitimation. ''''Locomotive'" has been subjected to 

 similar conditions. The adjective is locomo' five , but when 

 used as a noun the people say lo'comotive. But, better than 

 that, they generally say simply engine, in which term its 

 euphony has counterbalanced its lack of specification of 

 meaning and won the day. 



