310 



Linguistic Discussions. 



gender of a feminine to a masculine noun, and masculine it has been 

 ever since. The courtiers at once accepted the situation and the next 

 grammar and dictionary recorded the change. Sometimes, however, 

 fashion leads in the right direction — if there is any right direction. 

 For instance we may assume that the Italian a (ah) is more pleasing 

 or at least more dignified sound than the flat a of French. We are in- 

 debted to the Xormans for the latter sound, and as it came over with 

 the conqueror, why, to treat it with disrespect might imply some want 

 of regard to the persons who brought it with them, which could not 

 be tolerated. The sole argument for the Italian sound however, is its 

 euphony. It is thought that ahsh is more euphonius than ask, fahst than 

 fast. And so fashion decrees, we will say in Boston,the change in all that 

 class of words, and we are expected to obey its mandates. In Philadel- 

 phia they say pa and ma {a as \nman) — in New England paw and maw, 

 and in some other places pop and the old woman. The readiness with 

 which a foreign word is domesticated in the English language depends, 

 first, on the want of it to express an idea not perfectly represented by any 

 one already in the language, and, second, on the ease with which it may 

 assimilate in its new relationship without having too much violence 

 done to its spelling and pronunciation. We should have had debut and 

 ennui long ago naturalized had it not been for the difficulty of decid- 

 ing how to write and pronounce them. In doubtful cases the princi- 

 ple is a sound one that the pronunciation should be governed by the 

 general rule and not by the exception. Although I do not consider it 

 a case of doubt at all, yet in the word route there is a difference of 

 opinion. Out of every hundred who speak the English language, 

 perhaps one pronounces it root and the ninety-nine pronounce it 

 rout. It may be presumed that at least three out the ninety- 

 nine know as well as the hundredth person that route is a word of 

 French origin and in Paris would be pronounced as the hundredth 

 person pronounces it according to the French value of the vowels. 

 The same principle is applicable to the use of the word suite in the 

 phrase suite of rooms." There can be no more propriety in saying a 

 sweet of rooms " than of saying a sweet of clothes," or a basket 

 of frweet." 



There is a tendency to bring the accent as far forward in the word 

 as possible. A few years ago not to say balcony Was regarded as evi- 

 dence of want of culture if not of illiteracy. Now we wonder that 

 anybody ever pronounced it otherwise than lalcony. Quandary and 

 vagary on the contrary are two words that have had the accent shoved 

 backwards from the first to the second syllable. To illustrate the diffi- 

 culty of teaching sounds by the eye -alone, call to mind the pronuncia- 

 tion the Pennsylvanian gives to the word ^arre?, giving to the first sylla- 



