Page:America Today, Observations and Reflections.djvu/204

 has the Latin precedent in its favour. Neither advantage is conclusive; neither, indeed, is, strictly speaking, relevant; for Englishmen do not make a principle of accentuating the root rather than the prefix or suffix, else we should say "inund′ation," "reson′ant," "admir′able "; and the Americans do not make a principle of following the Latin emphasis, else they would say "orat′or" and "gratui′tous," and the recognised pronunciation of "theatre" would be "theayter." It is argued that there is a general tendency among educated Englishmen to throw the accent as far back as possible; that, for instance, the educated speaker says "in′teresting," the uneducated, "interest′ing." True; but until this tendency can be proved to possess some inherent advantage, there is not a shadow of reason why Americans should be reproached or ridiculed for obeying their own tendency rather than ours. The English tendency is a matter of comparatively recent fashion. "Con′template," said Samuel Rogers, "is bad enough, but bal′cony makes me sick." Both forms have maintained themselves up to the present; but will they for long? I think one may already trace a reaction against the universal throwing backward of the accent. I myself say "per′emptory" and "ex′emplary"; but it would take very little encouragement to make me say "peremp′tory" and "exemp′lary," which seem to me much more expressive words. There is surely no doubt that, in accenting a prefix rather