[This well-known system of short-hand is certainly still in use,—in fact, is that employed at the present time by the Gurneys, who are the appointed short-hand writers to the Houses of Lords and Commons.]
Spurious Don Quixote.—What English and French versions are there of the spurious continuation of Don Quixote by Avellaneda?
V. T. Sternberg.
[A notice of the English translations is given in Lowndes's Bib. Man., vol. i. p. 374., art. Cervantes. Consult also Ebert's Bibl. Dict., vol. i. p. 299., for the French translations.]
Replies.
PRONUNCIATION OF HEBREW NAMES AND WORDS IN THE BIBLE.
(Vol. viii., p. 469.)
Your correspondent does not, of course, inquire what is the proper Hebrew pronunciation of the several letters, but rather what is the accented syllable in each word. To pronounce in a manner nearly approaching to the Hebrew might make the congregation stare, but would appear very pedantic to a learned ear. The safest mode is to examine the Greek of the Septuagint, or of the New Testament (if the reader does not understand Hebrew), and observe the place of the acute accent. On that place, if it be on the penultimate or antepenultimate, the accent should be laid in English. But if the accent be on the last syllable, though it is strictly right to place it there also in English, it is not worth while to do so, for fear of making hearers talk about a strange sound, instead of attending to the service. It will be safer to accent the penultimate in dissyllables, and the antepenultimate in trisyllables, which in the Greek are acutitones; in fact, to pronounce, as all clergymen used to pronounce, until a pedantic and ignorant practice arose of lengthening, or rather accenting, every syllable in the penultimate, which had or was supposed to have a long quantity in Greek. Hence the comparatively new habit of pronouncing Σαβαώθ, Ζαβουλών, σαβαχθανί, Ακελδαμά, with a strong accent on the penultima; whereas the old-fashioned way of accenting the antepenultima makes no one stare, and is a much nearer approach to the true pronunciation. There is a curious inconsistency in the common way of reading, in English, Σαμαρεια and Καισαρεια. Samarīa is decidedly a Greek word; but yet, in this word, it is usual to accent the antepenultima. Cesarĕa is decidedly a Latin word Græcised, and yet it is usual to read this with an accent on the penultima. I never observed any of those who read Sabáoth, Zabúlon, and sabachtháni, read either Samaría or Cesárea. The Greek accents on Hebrew words always accord, as Hebraists know, with the tonic accent in that language.