One does not expect to hear such words as "necessi'ated," "preventative," &c., from people who profess to be educated; but one does hear them, nevertheless, and many others of the same genus, of which the following list is a specimen, not a collection.
| "Febuary" and "Febbiwerry," instead of February. | ||
| "Seckaterry" | instead of | secretary. |
| "Gover'ment" | " | government. |
| "Eve'min" | " | evening. |
| "Sev'm" | " | seven. |
| "Holladiz" | " | holidays. |
| "Mossle" | " | morsel. |
"Chapped," according to orthography, instead of chopped, according to polite usage.
And we have even heard "continental" pronounced continential, though upon what authority we know not. Besides these, a multitude of others might be quoted, which we consider too familiar to particularize and "too numerous to mention."
V.
There is an old jest on record of a person hearing another pronounce the word curiosity "curosity," and remarking to a bystander, "That man murders the English language." "Nay," replies the person addressed, "he only knocks an eye (i) out." And I am invariably reminded of this old jest whenever I hear such pronunciations as the following,—"Lat'n" for Latin, "sat'n" for satin, and Britain pronounced so as to rhyme with written,—of which a few examples will be given on a subsequent page, not with the wild hope of comprising in so short a space all the perversions of prosody which are constantly taking place, but simply with the intention of reminding careless speakers of some general principles they seem to have forgotten, and of the vast accumulation of error they may engraft upon themselves by a lazy adherence to the custom of the crowd. Before, however, proceeding to the words in question, it may be satisfactory to our readers to recall to their memory the observations of Lindley Murray on the subject. He says, "There is scarcely anything which more distinguishes a person of poor education from a person of a good one than the pronunciation of the unaccented vowels. When vowels are under the accent, the best speakers, and the lowest of the people, with very few exceptions, pronounce them in the same manner; but the unaccented vowels in the mouths of the former have a distinct, open, and specific sound, while the latter often totally sink them, or change them into some other sound." The words that have chiefly struck me are the following, in which not only the i but some of the other vowels are submitted to the mutilating process, or, as I have heard it pronounced, mutulating.
| Brit'n | instead of | Britain. |
| Lat'n | " | Latin. |
| Sat'n | " | Satin. |
| Patt'n | " | Patten. |
| Curt'n | " | Curtain. |
| Cert'n | " | Certain. |
| Bridle | " | Bridal. |
| Idle | " | Idol. |
| Meddle | " | Medal. |
| Moddle | " | Model. |
| Mentle | " | Mental. |
| Mortle | " | Mortal. |
| Fatle | " | Fatal. |
| Gravle | " | Gravel. |
| Travle | " | Travel. |
| Sudd'n | " | Sudden. |
| Infidle | " | Infidel. |
| Scroop'-lous | " | Scru-pu-lous. |
And a long train of et cetera, of which the above examples do not furnish a tithe.
Note.—That to sound the e in garden and often, and the i in evil and devil, is a decided error. They should always be pronounced gard'n and oft'n, ev'l and dev'l.
Some people pronounce the I in Irish and its concomitants so as to make the words Ireland, Irishmen, Irish linen, &c., sound as if they were written Arland, A-rishmen, Arish linen, &c. This is literally "knocking an i out."