American English, 



339 



tendency toward the obliteration of this divergence is sure to become 

 manifest. Wartvick is about as often Warwick as Warwick when 

 spoken of in America ; Norwich is more commonly Nortoich, I think, 

 than Noridgc ; St. Louis and Louisville are often called St. Lezvis and 

 Lyewisville; a resident of Delaware County in this State would not know 

 what place was meant if you spoke of the county seat as "Daily," so 

 perfectly settled is " Delhi " as the pronunciation as well as the spelling 

 of the name. A multitude of other instances might be mentioned, 

 among the most remarkable of which, perhaps, is the change that has 

 taken place in the popular sounding of the name Chautauqua. As 

 long as it was spelled with a final e, people persisted in saying 

 Chauta wk, notwithstanding that the local 'practice was always other- 

 wise ; but an immediate reformation was effected, some twenty years 

 ago, by the simple expedient of substituting an a. It is probably 

 quite safe to say that no mispronunciation of a geographical name, 

 growing out of an attempt to follow too closely the sound of its 

 letters, has ever become so prevalent in Great Britain as even to sug- 

 gest the idea of making the spelling conform to the orthoepy, and, 

 furthermore, that if such a difficulty occurred, the attempted remedy in 

 question would be found in that country quite unproductive of any 

 change in the popular usage. 



III. 



Passing from orthoepy to orthography, it hardly need be said that 

 in every instance without exception where a change in spelling has 

 originated in the United States, the change has been in the direction 

 of simplicity, and in the interest therefore of the "' reform " which the 

 Philological Society of Great Britain (not to mention such individual 

 names as Max Miiller, Dr. J. 11. Murray, Prof. Newman, the Duke 

 of Richmond, and Mr. Gladstone) so warmly favors. The dropping of 

 the second^ in ivaggon^ the u in parlour and similar words, the e in 

 storeg (of ahouse),and the final e in pease *(plural of pea), are all changes 

 in this direction ; and so is the substitution of w for ugh in plough, and 

 f tor ugh in draught, and the abandonment of the spellings sheiu, cyder,\ 

 and especially gaol, the universal adoption of yrti7 bringing the word 

 into harmony with the rest of the language, as there is no other in- 

 stance in- English of a soft ^ before « — notwithstanding that some 

 absurd people, who do not call Margaret Mar jar et or Garfield JarUeld, 

 will persist in saying oleomarjarine. 



* Of course ^eas« was not originally a plural word, but nobody thinks of it otherwise 

 now. 



. tSee Halliwell's Dictionary, art. " Griggles." 



