EVERY-DAY

ERRORS OF SPEECH

BY

L. P. MEREDITH, M.D., D.D.S.,

AUTHOR OF "THE TEETH, AND HOW TO SAVE THEM."

PHILADELPHIA:

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1876.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year, 1872, by

L. P. MEREDITH,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

INTRODUCTION

It may be regarded as one of the commendable peculiarities of the English language that, despite provincialisms, vulgarisms, neglected education, foreign accent, and the various corrupting influences to which it is subjected, it may be understood wherever it is heard, whatever differences of distance or associations may have existed between the speaker and the listener, both claiming familiarity with it. Considering these influences and the arbitrariness of the orthoepical rules of the language, there has been expressed surprise that frequent degenerations into uncouth dialects or patois have not occurred. A decent regard for the common weal should cause gratification that such degenerations have not taken place, for were it not for the ability of our tongue to preserve its individuality against the tendency toward corruption, we might reasonably fear such a Babel-like confusion, that, when asked, "Do you speak English?" one might appropriately, sans the profanity, reply in the language of the text, "Not as you pronounce it: Who the deuce could?" While the majority of people place no other value upon language than that of convenience, and are indifferent to any corruption, so long as they can simply understand and be understood, there is happily a better class, the æsthetic cultivation of which is such that those who belong to it are anxious to preserve the purity of our vernacular and are ashamed of all errors of speech in their daily conversations. For such it will not be uninteresting to look over a number of errors, principally of pronunciation, that are not formally laid down as such in books, and which people, even many of the best educated, are constantly committing, just because they have never had their attention called to them. These errors are becoming more deeply rooted every day and if not soon eradicated, it will not be many years before our orthoepic standard will be overthrown as it was in England some years ago.

Smart, one of the most celebrated of English orthoepists, in the preface of his dictionary says: "The proprietors of Walker's dictionary, finding it would slide entirely out of use unless it were adapted to the present day, engaged me as a teacher of elocution, known in London since Walker's time, to make the necessary changes." A standard pronouncing dictionary is a work that involves an extraordinary amount of labor and research in its compilation, and exerts an influence almost autocratical. The possibility of its becoming worthless in a short time is strange, especially when it is not on account of any work claiming superiority, but merely because error long persisted in finally becomes more authoritative than the original exemplar. With little effort, however, we can discern the causes. Persons are apt to acquire the pronunciation and use of the greater number of words by imitation, rather than by study. With confidence in the knowledge of the parent, teacher, minister, physician and others, their examples are followed