Page:The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.djvu/125

Rh confusion, and taking the usages of polite life as the standard, many uncouth innovations. All know the pronounciationpronunciation [sic] of ; but it will scarcely do to take this sound as the only power of the same combination of final letters, for we should be compelled to call , thou;  , throu; and  , tou.

False accentuation is a common American fault. Ensign (insin,) is called ensyne and engine (injin,) engyne. Indeed, it is a common fault of narrow associations, to suppose that words are to be pronounced as they are spelled.

Many words are in a state of mutation, the pronunciation being unsettled even in the best society, a result that must often arise where language is as variable and undetermined as the English. To this class belong "clerk," "cucumber" and "gold," which are often pronounced as spelt, though it were better and more in conformity with polite usage to say "clark," "cow-cumber," (not cowcumber,) and "goold." For lootenant. (lieutenant) there is not sufficient authority, the true pronunciation being "levtenant." By making a familiar compound of this word, we see the uselesness of attempting to reduce the language to any other laws than those of the usages of polite life, for they who affect to say lootenant, do not say "lootenant-co-lo-nel," but "loootenant-kurnel."

The polite pronunciation of "either" and "neither," is "i-ther" and "ni-ther," and not "eether" and "neether." This is a case in which the better usage of the language has respected derivations, for "ei," in German are pronounced as in "height" and "sleight," "ie" making the sound of "ee." We see the arbitrary usages of the English, however, by comparing these legitimate sounds with those of the words "lieutenant