Linguistic Discussions, 



307 



forming period — that is, a period of ignorance ; but the upright man 

 sinks back in dismay when he is confronted with the mode now in 

 vogue of pronouncing certain other words to be presently considered. 

 An iUiterate people may be excused for considerable variation in pro- 

 nunciation, but is it fair treatment to the shade of Mr. Webster, sup- 

 posing it given to traveling, to hear thar and whar in North Carolina, 

 theer and wheer in Virginia, thare and whare in New England, and 

 there * and where in New York ? Being somewhat of an old fogy in 

 regard to pronunciation, and mindful of unaccustomed sounds I some- 

 times hear, it was with a degree of trepidation that I inquired lately 

 of one of the teachers in our public schools whether they ever had oc- 

 casion to teach the alphabet. But the question was not the cause of 

 my trepidation, it only led up to it. Being informed that such was 

 the case, I then anxiously sprung my real question, Do you teach 

 the scholars to name the first letter of the alphabet a (long) or a 

 (short) as its proper normal sound ?" **Why, a (long) of course." Al- 

 though I did not pursue the subject any further verbally, yet mentally 

 I asked myself a million questions, or less. N-a-t-i-o-n — nation, n-a- 

 tion-al — nashenal. During the civil war, however, we even heard of 

 soldiers' rashions (rations). But he who says nashenalf should also say 

 nashion, stashion, stashionary and all the other ations and ationaries 

 in the language. So long as we recognize the fact that there are gen- 

 eral fundamental laws governing the letters, ascribing to them certain 

 fixed sounds, so long it seems obligatory to respect those symbols and 

 not vary from them as whims or fashion may chance to dictate. 



In this connection I venture modestly to question the propriety of 

 saying ither and nither. The best students of old English are agreed 

 that these words were formerly pronounced ayther and nayther. But 

 they conformed in process of time to the pronunciation of other words 

 containing the diphthong ei so as to become eether and neether. If 

 there is another word in the language besides height and sleight wliere 

 ei takes the long i sound, I do not now recall it, and in the first of 

 these words, the e is an interloper. Height as derived from the ad- 

 jective high of course needs only the t to make it the abstract noun. 

 And the same may be said of sleight. By etymology the e has no 

 right to be in the word at all. As for either and neither ^ there is cer- 

 tainly no philological reason for pronouncing these two words with the 

 long I sound, and as devotees of science we can admit no other law to 

 influence us. 



Our language is a growth like a living organism, and the process is 

 so gradual as to be imperceptible. Particularly is this true of the 



* E as in pere. 



t First a as in hash. 



