INHERITED PRONUNCIATION 



its origin, because it has not been constantly the same from 

 its beginning. Thus our living languages are only about 

 two thousand years old, and even in this time have been 

 modified. It is surely enough, as I before insisted, that we 

 have acquired and inherited the faculty of perceiving tones, 

 and producing sounds of various pitch. The rest depends on 

 conventions and practice of comparatively short duration. 



It is certainly impossible to contest that the faculty of 

 producing particular vocal sounds has evidently become 

 hereditary in the members of different nations. While I was 

 writing the preceding during a sojourn on the island of 

 Spiekeroog, an Italian organ-grinder came before the window 

 of uiy room and ground out his shrill tunes. I asked him 

 where he was going to-day. To " Orik," said he. I knew no 

 such town. At last I found from his residence-permit that 

 he meant the town of Aurich on the mainland. I en- 

 deavoured in vain to make him pronounce the name cor- 

 rectly. " Orik " he continued to repeat ; it was perfectly im- 

 possible for him to pronounce the " au " and " ch." It may 

 be objected, that in this case it was simply want of practice ; 

 that if the Italian practised for some years he would certainly 

 at last be able to pronounce the word " Aurich " quite cor- 

 rectly, and the children of Italian parents would certainly 

 have no difficulty if they were brought up in Germany. 

 Granted, but not unconditionally. A trace of the tendency 

 to speak in the Italian manner would probably remain even 

 in the latter case. 1 How is it to be explained that the Jews, 

 wherever they are found in Germany or elsewhere, pronounce 



1 In consequence of the efforts of the German Scholastic Association young 

 people of German race, Cimbrians and Goths, but speaking only the Italian lan- 

 guage, are frequently brought from South Tyrol to Germany in order that they 

 may learn German. It has been noticed in such people that "the structure of 

 their vocal organs being of the Germanic type, they learn High German with 

 peculiar facility." Cf. Funfter Jahresbericht des Frankfurter Vereins zur Unter- 

 stiitzung deutscher Schulen im Auslande, 1887. An accurate investigation of 

 such cases would be of great value. 



