Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/512

* PRONUNCIATION. 444 PRONUNCIATION. a sound or sounds quite di.stiiU't fiom anv repre- sented by any single letter in the Knglish alpha- bet, and "in some cases sounds not heard at all in spoken Knglish. li the same alphabet with the same letter values were used in all the modern languages and the spelling were phonetic, the correct pro- nunciation of most foreign names would give little difficulty to a person speaking Knglish; but the values of letters in those languages that use the Roman alphabet vary so greatly from the English values that in fact little can be told of the pronunciation of a foreign name from its spoiling hy any general rule, except that the vowi'ls proliably have the values given to them in Italian. In the case of those languages (as Russian, Turkisli, Arabic, Greek, etc.) that use an alphabet dillVring from the Roman alphabet a new dilhculty is involved in understanding the foreign letters, or, if the name occurs spelled in Roman letters, in ascertaining what system of transliteration is used. Another difficulty is involved in the fact that the names of many foreign countries, cities, and persons have come into Knglish use through the medium of a thiid language, as through French or German, in which case the spelling is in- iluenced accordingly. In many other cases the spelling that has come into Knglish represents an attempt made by some explorer or traveler to represent some native pronunciation heard by him, as in the ease of a number of Chinese names. Owing to these and other difficulties, no general rule can be given for the pronunciation of proper names in all or any number of foreign languages; and in any given language, however phonetic its system of spelling may be, there arc many names that present variations from general rules. The following rules or principles, therefore, are intended to furnish only a general rule to aid in understanding the values of the letters that occur in the names of foreign languages using the Roman alphabet, or essentially that one, and to some extent transliterations from other languages, as the Russian and Greek. For the purposes of this article the best practicable method will be to explain the sounds mentioned by reference to the same sound in the English langiuige or its nearest equivalent, the more accurate and scientific method of describing by the conformation of the mouth organs when ut- tering the sound being too technical for this place. See the explanation of Visible Speech in the article T)Ev ;Mitk, and also consult the titles A, B, C, etc., in this Kncyclopicdia. Loosely, it may be said that each vowel in the foreign languages has a pronounced value, except that in cases of doubled letters two vowels generally make a single syllable. The number of syllables in foreign words is, there- fore, generally e<|ual to the number of vowels. In the rcspelling for pronunciation used in this w«rk the syllables are separated from each other by accents ( ' for primary .stress, and ' for secondary), and hyphens ( - ), with the use of the apostrophe ( ' ) to indicate a lesser degree of separation between consonants than is made bv a full vowel constituting a distinct syllable, as in the glides (obscured transitional sounds) and catches (certain spasmodic interruptions of the breath). Every letter in a respelled pronun- ciation is to be given its value as indicated in the Key to Rronunciation. In many cases in English words and names no pronvinciation is indicated, either because the pronunciation has already lieen shown in a ])reecding word, or be- cause its proper pronunciation seems too evident to need to be indicated. In some eases where the pronunciation of a word is sufficiently in- dicated by marking the accented syllable, the vocabulary title has been accented without re- spelling. In such cases it is assumed that the values of the letters are known or evident. In some foreign words, also, only the accented syllabic is shown in the same way, in which cases the letters are to be given the values that they would naturally have in an Knglish word spelt in the same way. Accent. In nearly all languages words are pronounced with an accent, or distinguishing stress, upon one syllable or more. In most of the modern languages of civilized races this accent is essentially like that of Knglish, espe- cially in the Teutonic languages; but in none of the langmiges is the accent thrown upon the accented syllables so much to the exclusion of the others as is done in English. The unaccented syllables in foreign names, therefore, are gen- erally more distinctly pronounced than in Eng- lish, the vowels retaining the quality of the long accented vowels, but being cut off more quickly in utterance. Conversely the long or accented vowels in foreign names do not usually have the glides that often give the English its drawled cti'ect to foreign ears. In speaking foreign names, therefore, care should always be taken to pronounce distinctly syllalilcs not marked as indistinct or slurred in the rcspelling, and, on the' other band, not to i)rolong unduly the vowels of accented .syllables. There are few cases where any general rules of accentuation can be given that are not subject to numerous exceptions. Some, however, are sufficiently general to be of considerable aid in determining the proper pronmiciation of foreign names. In Arabic the stress is on the last long syllable, i.e. one having a long vowel, or a short vowel followed by a consonant, except that a final long vowel does not take the accent. If there be no long syllable the first syllable is accented. In liohcmiiin {C::cch) the accent is on the first syl- lable. In French there is generally no strong accent, and by some it is said that there is no accent. Probably the best opinion, how- ever, is that there is an accent on the last syllable of importance in conveying the meaning of the word, which in proper names would, nat- urally, be practically always the last syllable. In accordance with this the heavy accent has lieen uniformly placed upon the last syllable in giving the pronunciation of French names in this Kneyplopa'dia. The accents printed as a part of I'rench words do not relate to the spoken accent or stress. In German the accent is so generally in accordance with the principles of Knglish accent that the sense of the reader may generally be trusted to get it right. In modern (Ireclc tlic stress follows the written accent, and is not governed by the quantity of the vowels. In IJunfjarian the spoken accent is always on the first syllable, and graphic accents are used only to indi<-ate long vowels, whose length is due to prolongation without added stress of voice. In Italian most names have the spoken accent on I