Enquire Within Upon Everything / The Great Victorian Domestic Standby

by Robert Kemp Philp

1. pbefore s and t is mute; as in psalm, pseudo, ptarmigan; pronounced sarm, sudo, tarmigan.

1. r has two sounds, one strong and vibrating, as at the beginning of words and syllables, such as robber, reckon, error; the other as at the terminations of words, or when succeeded by a consonant, as farmer, morn.

1. Before the letter r, there is a slight sound of e between the vowel and the consonant. Thus, bare, parent, apparent, mere, mire, more, pure, pyre, are pronounced nearly baer, paerent, appaerent, me-er,mier, moer,puer, pyer. This pronunciation proceeds from the peculiar articulation of r, and it occasions a slight change of the sound of a, which can only be learned by the ear.

1. There are other rules of pronunciation affecting the combinations of vowels, &c; but as they are more difficult to describe, and as they do not relate to errors which are commonly prevalent, we shall content ourselves with giving examples of them in the following list of words. When, a syllable in any word in this list is printed in bold, the accent or stress of voice should be laid on that syllable.

Auctions Commenced in Britain in A.D. 1779.

197. Proper Pronunciations of Words often Wrongly Pronounced.

Again	usually pronounced a-gen, not as spelled.
Alien	á-li-en not ale-yen.
Antipodes	an-tip-o-dees.
Apostle	as a-pos'l, without the t.
Arch-	artch in compounds of our own language, as in archbishop, archduke; but ark in words derived from the Greek, as archaic, ar-ka-ik; archaeology, ar-ke-ol-o-gy; archangel, ark-ain-gel; archetype, ar-ke-type; archiepiscopal, ar-ke-e-pis-co-pal; archipelago, ar-ke-pel-a-go; ar-chives, ar-kivz, &c
Asia	a-sha.
Asparagus	as spelled, not asparagrass.
Aunt	ant, not aunt.
Awkward	awk-wurd, not awk-urd.
Bade	bad
Because	be-cawz, not ba-cos
Been	bin
Beloved	as a verb, be-luvd; as an adjective, be-luv-ed. Blessed, cursed, &c, are subject to the same rule.
Beneath	with the th in breath, not with the th in breathe.
Bio'graphy	as spelled, not beography.
Buoy	boy, not bwoy.
Canal'	as spelled, not ca-nel.
Caprice	capreece
Catch	as spelled, not ketch.
Chaos	ka-oss.
Charlatan	shar-latan.
Chasm	kazm
Chasten	chasn
Chivalry	shiv-alry.
Chemistry	kem'-is-tre, not kim-is-tre.
Choir	kwire
Clerk	klark
Combat	kum-bat.
Conduit	kun-dit.
Corps	kor: the plural corps is pronounced korz.
Covetous	cuv-e-tus, not cov-e-tus.
Courteous	curt-yus.
Courtesy	1. (politeness), cur-te-sey. 2. (a lowering of the body), curt-sey.
Cresses	as spelled, not cree-ses.
Cu'riosity	cu-re-os-e-ty, not curosity.
Cushion	coosh-un, not coosh-in.
Daunt	dawnt, not dant or darnt, as some erroneously pronounce it.
Design and Desist	have the sound of s, not of z.
Desire	should have the sound of z.
Despatch	de-spatch, not dis-patch.
Dew	due, not doo.
Diamond	as spelled, not dimond.
Diploma	de-plo-ma, not dip-lo-ma.
Diplomacy	de-plo-ma-cy, not dip-lo-ma-cy.
Direct	de-reckt, not di-rect.
Divers	(several), di-verz; but diverse (different), di-verse.
Dome	as spelled, not doom.
Drought	drowt, not drawt.
Duke	as spelled, not dook.
Dynasty	dyn-as-te, not dy-nas-ty.
Edict	e-dickt, not ed-ickt.
E'en and e'er	een and air.
Egotism	eg-o-tizm, not e-go-tism.
Either	e-ther or i-ther.
Engine	en-jin, not in-jin.
Ensign	en-sign; ensigncy, en-sin-se.
Epistle	without the t.
Epitome	e-pit-o-me
Epoch	e-pock, not ep-ock.
Equinox	e-qui-nox, not eck-wi-nox.
Europe	U-rope, not U-rup. Euro-pean not Eu-ro-pean.
Every	ev-er-y, not ev-ry.
Executor	egz-ec-utor, not with the sound of x.
Extraordinary	as spelled, not ex-tror—di-ner-i, or ex-traordinary, nor extrornarey
February	as spelled, not Febuary.
Finance	fe-nance, not finance.
Foundling	as spelled, not fond-ling.
Garden	gar-dn, not gar-den, nor gard-ing.
Gauntlet	gawnt-let, not gant-let.
Geography	as spelled, not jography, or gehography.
Geometry	as spelled, not jom-etry.
Haunt	hawnt, not hant.
Height	hite, not highth.
Heinous	hay-nuss, not hee-nus.
Highland	hi-land, not hee-land.
Horizon	ho-ri-zn, not hor-i-zon.
Housewife	pronounced in the ordinary way when it means the mistress of a house who is a good manager, but huz-wif, when it means a small case for needles.
Hymeneal	hy-men-e-al, not hy-menal.
Instead	in-sted, not instid.
Isolate	i-so-late; not iz-o-late, nor is-olate.
Jalap	jal-ap, not jolup.
January	as spelled, not Jenuary nor Janewary.
Leave	as spelled, not leaf.
Legend	lej-end, not le-gend.
Lieutenant	lef-ten-ant, not leu-ten-ant.
Many	men-ney, not man-ny.
Marchioness	mar-shun-ess, not as spelled.
Massacre	mas-sa-ker, not mas-sa-cre.
Mattress	as spelled, not mat-trass.
Matron	ma-trun, not mat-ron.
Medicine	med-e-cin, not med-cin.
Minute	1. (sixty seconds), min-it. 2. (small), mi-nute.
Miscellany	mis-cel-lany, not mis-cellany.
Mischievous	mis-chiv-us, not mis-cheev-us.
Ne'er	for never, nare.
Neighbourhood	nay-bur-hood, not nay-burwood.
Nephew	nev-u, not nefu.
New	nu, not noo.
Notable	(worthy of notice), no-tu-bl.
Obilge	as spelled, not obleege.
Oblique	ob-leek, not o-blike.
Odorous	o-der-us, not od-ur-us.
Of	ov, except when compounded with the here, and where, which should be pronounced here-of, there-of, and where-of.
Off	as spelt, not awf.
Organization	or-gan-i-za-shun, not or-ga-ne-za-shun.
Ostrich	os-tr'ch, not os-tridge.
Pageant	paj-ent, not pa-jant.
Parent	pare-ent, not par-ent.
Partisan	par-te-zan, not par-te-zan, nor par—ti-zan.
Patent	pa-tent, not pat-ent.
Physiognomy	as fiz-i-ognomy, not phy-sionnomy.
Pincers	pin-cerz, not pinch-erz.
Plaintiff	as spelled, not plan-tiff.
Pour	pore, not so as to rhyme with our.
Precedent	(an example), pres-e-dent; pre-ce-dent (going before in point of time, previous, former), is the pronunciation of the adjective.
Prologue	pro-log, not prol-og.
Quadrille	ka-dril, not quod-ril.
Quay	key, not as spelled.
Radish	as spelled, not red-ish.
Raillery	rail'-er-y, or ral-er y, not as spelled.
Rather	rar-ther, not ray-ther.
Resort	re-sort.
Resound	re-zound.
Respite	res-pit, not as spelled.
Rout	(a party; and to rout), should be pronounced rowt. Route (a road), root.
Saunter	saun-ter, not sarn-ter or san-ter.
Sausage	saw-sage not sos-sidge, nor sassage.
Schedule	shed-ule, not shed-dle.
Seamstress	is pronounced seem-stress, but semp-stress, as the word is now commonly spelt, is pronounced sem-stress.
Sewer	soo-er or su-er, not shore, nor shure.
Shire	as spelled, when uttered as a single word, but shortened into shir in composition.
Shone	shon, not shun, nor as spelled.
Soldier	sole-jer.
Solecism	sol-e-cizm, not sole-cizm.
Soot	as spelled, not sut.
Sovereign	sov-er-in, not suv-er-in.
Specious	spe-shus, not spesh-us.
Stomacher	stum-a-cher.
Stone	(weight), as spelled, not stun.
Synod	sin-od, not sy-nod.
Tenure	ten-ure, not te-nure.
Tenet	ten-et, not te-net.
Than	as spelled, not thun.
Tremor	trem-ur, not tre-mor.
Twelfth	should have the th sounded.
Umbrella	as spelled, not um-ber-el-la.
Vase	vaiz or varz, not vawze.
Was	woz, not wuz.
Weary	weer-i, not wary.
Were	wer, not ware.
Wont	wunt, not as spelled.
Wrath	rawth, not rath: as an adjective it is spelled wroth, and pronounced with the vowel sound shorter, as wrath-ful, &c
Yacht	yot, not yat.
Yeast	as spelled, not yest.
Zenith	zen-ith, not ze-nith.
Zodiac	zo-de-ak.
Zoology	should have both o's sounded,as zo-ol-o-gy, not zoo-lo-gy.

Note

.—The tendency of all good elocutionists is to pronounce as nearly in accordance with the spelling as possible.