74 BROOMALL : VARIATION IN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION. 



" On the side of consonant utterance, there is a very large 

 class of cases where it can be made a question whether a 

 pure / or df or .? or ^ is pronounced with an i- or y- sound 

 after it before another v-owel, or whether the consonant is 

 fused together with the i or y into the sounds cli, J, sh or 2h 

 respectively — for example, whether we say 7iaifi?r or ?iacJmr, 

 gradual or grafdal, sure or sh'dr, idzual or vizh'dal. There are 

 many such words in which accepted usage has fully ranged 

 itself in the side of the fused pronunciation ; for example, 

 vizho7i, not vizion, for vision ; azhiir, not azure, for az7i7'e ; but 

 with regard to the great majority' usage is less decided, or 

 else one pronunciation is given in ordinary easy utterance 

 and the other when speaking with deliberation or labored 

 plainness, or else the fused pronunciation is used without the 

 fact being acknowledged. For such cases is introduced here 

 a special mark under the consonant * ^ ^= -^ * which 

 is intended to signify that in elaborate or strained utterance 

 the consonant has its own proper value, but in ordinary styles 

 of speaking combines with the following /'-element into the 

 fused sound. The mark is not used unless the fused sound is 

 admissible in good common speech." 



This is simply recording the vacillation, and perhaps the 

 duty of the dictionary is fulfilled by statement of the fact. 



Scientifically, however, the vacillation is a process from 

 one sound to another under the linguistic conditions above 

 described. In the particular sounds here considered the direc- 

 tion of the change is from / to ch and from d to J. When 

 the lexicographer thus sanctions a variant pronunciation, it 

 is evident that the process is well advanced in the words 

 above cited. As far as they are concerned, he abdicates his 

 authoritative attitude and refuses to risk a declaration of cor- 

 rect pronunciation. This is scholastic testimony to the fact 

 that a spoken language belongs to its speakers and not to the 

 grammarian and the lexicographer. 



