  1. OrthoËpy or Correct Pronunciation, is the utterance of words with their right sounds and accents, as sanctioned by the best usage. It depends principally upon Articulation, Syllabication, and Accentuation. 2. Articulation is the distinct utterance of the elementary vowel and consonant sounds of the language, whether separate, or combined into syllables and words. In pronouncing a word its elementary sounds should be correctly articulated. 3. The more common faults in articulation are:— (1) Omitting a vowel sound, or substituting one vowel sound for another, in an unaccented syllable. Of all faults in pronunciation probably this is the commonest. As a rule it results from carelessness in utterance. Examples of it are:—pronouncing—arithmetic, ’rithmetic; library, lib’ry; literature, lit’rature; geography, j’ography; barrel, barr’l; below, b’low; family, fam’ly; violent, vi’lent; history, hist’ry; memory, mem’ry; regular, reg’lar; usual, uzh’al; always, alwuz; afford, ufford; abundant, abundunt; eatable, eatuble; America, Ameriky; children, childrin; modest, modust; commandment, commandmunt; judgment, judgmunt; moment, momunt; kindness, kindniss; gospel, gospil; pocket, pockit; emotion, immotion; charity, charuty; opposite, oppozut; potato, putateh; patriot, patriut; obedience, ubedience; accurate, ak’er-it; particular, partikiler. (2) Substituting one vowel sound for another in an accented syllable or a one-syllabled word. This fault may result, not from carelessness, but from want of knowledge, for the correct pronunciation of the vowel sounds of words must be learned from some correct speaker, or from a dictionary. Examples of this fault are:—pronouncing—ate, et; catch, ketch; sat, sot; gather, gether; bade, bade; was, wuz; father, father or fawther; says (sez), saz; get, git; kettle, kittle; deaf (def), deef; creek, crick; rinse, rense; bonnet, bunnet; bosom, buzum; from, frum; just, jest; shut, shet; new (nu), noo; duty, dooty; reduce, redooce; because, bekuz; saucy, sassy; point, pint; instead, instid; route, (root), rout. (3) Omitting a consonant sound, or substituting one consonant sound for another; as in pronouncing—yeast, ’east; February, Feb’uary; and, an’; old, ol’; acts, ac’s; slept, slep’; depths, dep’s; fields, fiel’s; winds, win’s; breadths, bre’ths; twelfth, twel’th or twelf’; asked (askt), as’t; mostly, mos’ly; swiftly, swif’ly; government, gover’ment; Arctic, Ar’tic; products, produc’s; consists, consis’; commands, comman’s; morning, mornin; strength, strenth; length, lenth; shrink, srink; shrill, srill; height, hith; Asia (A’she-a), A’zhe-a; chimney, chimbly; covetous (cuv’et-us), cuv’e-chus; fortune, forchin. (4) Introducing in the pronunciation of a word a sound that does not belong to it; as in pronouncing—drown, drownd; drowned, drownded; often (of’n), of´ten; epistle, (e-pis´l), e-pis´tel; elm, el´um; film, fil´um; height, hit’th; grievous, grev´i-us; mischievous (mis´chiv-us), mis-chev´i-us; column, col´yum; once (wuns), wunst; across, acrost. (5) Misusing the sound of r; as in pronouncing—Maria, Mariar; idea, idear; widow, widder; meadow, medder; farm, far-r-m; warm, war-r-m; war, wa’; door, do-ah; garden, gÄ’den; card, cÄ’d; warm, wÄ’m; forth, fo’th; hundred, hunderd; children, childern. (6) Misusing the aspirate (h); as in pronouncing—happy, ’appy; apples, happles; whence, wence; which, wich; what, wot; whirl, wirl. 4. Syllabication (in OrthoËpy) is the correct formation of syllables in pronouncing words. A syllable is a sound, or a combination of sounds, uttered by a single impulse of the voice, and constituting a word or a part of a word. A word has as many syllables as it has separate vowel sounds. When words are uttered so that their vowel sounds are clearly and correctly articulated, they will be properly syllabified. 5. Accentuation is the correct placing of accent in uttering words. Accent is a superior stress or force of voice upon certain syllables of words which distinguishes them from the other syllables. In uttering a word of more than one syllable, one of the syllables receives a greater stress in pronunciation than the others, and is said to be accented, or to have the accent. Some words have more than one syllable accented, as con´fla-gra´´tion, in-com´pre-hen´si-bil´´ity; but one syllable is always more strongly accented than the others, and is said to have the main or primary accent. Accentuation, like the other elements of orthoËpy, is fixed by usage; that is, by the practice of those who are recognized as correct speakers. 6. In the pronunciation of a word care should be taken to give to the vowels their proper sounds, to place the accent upon the right syllable, and to sound the consonants distinctly. The tendency to drop consonant sounds, and to pronounce indistinctly or incorrectly the vowel sounds of unaccented syllables, should be carefully guarded against. The distinction between syllables should be carefully made, and especially, the distinction between separate words. Carelessness in this respect may make the meanings of sentences uncertain. For example: He saw two beggars steal, may sound as, He sought to beg or steal; He had two small eggs, may sound as, He had two small legs; and Can there be an aim more lofty? as, Can there be a name more lofty? This blending of the sounds of words is prevented, partly by distinctly uttering the sounds of their initial letters, but chiefly by distinctly uttering and slightly dwelling upon the sounds of their final letters. THIRD READER. |
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