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uniformly the sound of ch in chasm. Charta, Archipelago, Archimedes.

Examples:

II. In the reading of Latin quotations, extending to clauses and sentences, the vowels a and i occurring in Latin words, in such positions as, in English words, would require them to sound as in ale and isle, may, at the discretion of the reader or the teacher, be enunciated with these sounds, or with those of a, in arm, and of i, in magazine; both modes of pronunciation being sanctioned, or permitted, in our colleges.

Note.- The former of these styles, although sanctioned by the authority of Oxford, is, to all the nations of Europe, but England, an unnatural and revolting barbarism, entirely subversive of the appropriate music of utterance in the ancient languages. Our New-England colleges are, at length, beginning to recede so far from this objectionable style as to permit the continental forms of orthoëpy, in the reading of Greek and Latin. In our Middle States, the purity of the continental style is sometimes marred by an unwarrantable license, which introduces the Oxford sound of i, in the same word, perhaps, Iwith the continental broad a. The word Romani, transmuted by this system of compromise, becomes neither the venerable "Românee" of antiquity, nor the Anglicised, self-consistent "Romānī," but a species of "modern antique" in utterance,—“ Români.”

THE AUTHORITY OF WALKER, AS AN ORTHOËPIST.

The fact, that the owners of the copyright of Walker's dictionary, found it necessary, some years ago, to employ Mr. Smart of London, an eminent instructor and elocutionist, to revise the work, because the style of pronunciation indicated by its author, had, in some classes of words, become obso

lete, proves the falsity of the opinion that American usage ought to be kept uniformly and rigorously to Walker's standard. It should never be forgotten by teachers, however, that the interpretation of this fact does not warrant the entire rejection of Walker's authority, in the headlong and rash manner which is sometimes exemplified, and which scouts the decisions of Walker as, in any case, binding, or even well founded. Walker's authority was respectfully acknowledged by the most learned and the most accomplished men of his day, as decisive on all points, with the exception of a few of the changes which he wished to introduce, and in which he was not followed by the sanction of custom. At the distance of more than half a century from the period of Walker's ascendency, and in our capacity as a distinct and independent nation, we may justly be expected to claim a yet wider liberty of opinion, taste, and practice, than the people of England; and, while Walker's dictionary still holds a respectable place in our regard, we may well be allowed to modernise our current style of pronunciation, by the aids of Smart and Reid, and those, also, of our own countrymen, Dr. Worcester and Professor Henry Reed,· and, in all cases in which American usage is universal, and not merely local, to follow our own national mode, in preference to any other.

The two British authors, mentioned above, have furnished valuable aids to instruction in their respective dictionaries. That of Smart gives a faithful report of the usage of cultivated speakers, at the present day, in the city of London: Reid's presents a more general style, that which may be said to characterise the pronunciation of educated persons, throughout the British isles, who have freed their manner from local peculiarities. Reid's dictionary, accordingly, is found in extensive use in the normal schools and higher seminaries of Great Britain. The

late Professor Henry Reed, of Philadelphia, rendered an invaluable service to the interests of education, by his careful re-editing of that work, not less than by his constant exertions, in other forms, to cherish, among the students of our higher seminaries of learning, a taste for the study of English literature

WORDS PECULIARLY LIABLE TO WRONG ACCENT, IN

NEGLIGENT USAGE.

The principle by which the teacher should be guided in determining the rule of accent, in the following and similar instances, is the preponderance of authority. The conflicting decisions of different orthoëpists, sometimes, unfortunately, lead to the conclusion that the adoption of any of the proposed modes, in a given case, is a matter of indifference. But this should be the result only when authorities are exactly or nearly balanced. In whatever case one or two names only are adduced in favor of a given style, while all others stand opposed to it, the minority, no matter how eminent,―are necessarily, for the moment, in the wrong; since in this, as in all other points concerning language, the question is one of usage and fact,—not of theory or opinion.

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* The true accent, only, is marked in the above columns.

WORDS ON

THE

PRONUNCIATION OF WHICH THE

WEIGHT OF AUTHORITY IS NEARLY BALANCED, AND WHICH, THEREFORE, ARE AMENABLE ΤΟ THE DECISION OF INDIVIDUAL JUDGMENT AND TASTE, AS TO THEIR APPROPRIATE STYLE.

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Note. Whatever shade of preference, in any instance, may be justly claimed, is intimated by the mode of notation on the left-hand column.

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