36 H. L. BROOM ALL 



admissible. Spanish legitimated this change by spelling pho- 

 netically, as in derecho from L,atin directum, hecho ixonv factum 

 and Icche from lactc. Hence the vulgar Chucsday for T?iesday 

 and " gechour hat" for "get your hat." Just as Latin 

 diiirnalis becomes our journal, so we hear individual as indivi- 

 Jual , immediately as immejately, tedious as tejous, duke as juke , 

 Indian as Injun, and did you as dijou. Our unphonetic use of 

 the alphabet prejudices us against conforming the spelling to 

 these changes of sound, although the best speakers uncon- 

 scioush' make them at times and we always understand the 

 speaker who makes them wherever these combinations of 

 sounds occur. The Sanskrit writer, who used his alphabet 

 phonetically and consistently, recognized this phonetic law, 

 and, were the words his, would have written dijou and not did 

 you. To say literachure is to follow both linguistic law and 

 precedent : to say literatyure is to imitate a Latin spelling. 



Consonantal r easily becomes vocal r and then coalesces 

 with a neighboring vowel. Thus, in the standard use of 

 English, barse has become bass and sprecan speak. Among 

 many speakers farther and father not only sound the same, 

 but also lose their final ;-. Not without respectable example, 

 then, are such vulgarisms as eatridge for cartrids;e, mash for 

 marsh, hoss for horse, cuss for curse and bust for burst. 



The voluntary- lessening of effort is illustrated by the clip- 

 ping of one or more syllables or letters from a word when they 

 have no separate or individual significance. In this case 

 there are no intermediate forms such as occur in the gradual 

 change under the mechanical process. Thus, by voluntan,^ 

 omission, mobile became mob, cabriolet cab and omnibus bus. 

 The corresponding error is pants for pantaloons and ,g^ent for 

 gentlemaii . These shock our lingaiistic taste, but mob, cab and 

 bus must have been at first just as abhorrent to the cuhivated 

 ear. An interesting example of this process is the use of 

 phone for telephone. Perhaps, to most of us, it has ah'eady lost 

 vulgarity. Such cases of change are less frequent than those 

 produced under the mechanical process. The variation, when 



