POLITE PRONUNCIATION

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12612, 24 November 1926, Page 9

POLITE PRONUNCIATION

GEMS FROM AN OLD DICTIONARY THE SIN OF VULGARITY. The pronunciation of words in any language is continually changing. And not only is the sound of the word altered, but in many cases the meaning also. If, for instanoe. we look at Walker’s Dictionary (edition 1779), we find that “catcall’ is defined as “A squeaking instrument used in the playhouse to condemn plays,” and “Cadger” as “A huckster.’’ And Walker adds: This word is only used by the vulgar in London and where it is not applied to any particular profession or employment, but nearly in the same sense as “Curmudgeon,” and is corruptly pronounced as if written “Codger.” “Hostel,” Walker tells us, is “A general inn”; “Luncheon,” “As much food as one’s hand can hold,”; and “Nunchio.n,” “A piece of victuals taken . between meals.” “Waif” meant in Walker’s time “Goods found and claimed by nobody.” “Sofa” was “A splendid seat covered with carpets.” WITH GARRICK AT THE LANE. Walker was at one time an actor, playing at Drury Lane with David Garrick; and we are told that he played “second parts in tragedy and those of a grave, sententious cast in comedy.” After reading his own footnote to the word “Fun,” which he defines, as Dr. Johnson did, as “Sport, high merriment,” adding. “With great deference to Dr. Johnson, I think ‘Fun’ ought rather to be styled low merriment,” we should not be inclined to question Garrick’s wisdom in allotting Walker the parts he did.

Walker talks a great deal of “The Polite” and “The Vulgar”; in fact, it would appear that vulgarity was to him one —and pehaps the most fatal —of the seven deadly sins. Thus “yellow” was pronounced by various authorities as “yallow,” xhyming with “tallow.” John Walker, however, prefers “yellow,” rhyming with “mellow.” For, he observes: “I am much deceived if the former pronunciation do not border closely on the vulgar.” “Chaise,” “A carriage either of pleasure or expedition,” carries with it this comment: “The vulgar, who are unacquainted with tile spelling of this word and ignorant of its French derivation, are apt to suppose it a plural and call a single carriage a ‘shay.’ ” THE VULGAR TONGUE. “Growth of vulgarity” is noticeable in connection with the word “flay.” “There is a common pronunciation of this word as if spelled ‘flea,’ rhyming with ‘sea,’ which is every day growing more vulgar.” “Sausage” was pronounced, we are told, as “sawsidge” “by the correct,” and “Sassidje” “by vulgar speakers.” Here is one of the few instances in which the “polite” is not used in contradistinction to the “vulgar.” Perhaps the polite refused to acknowledge the existence of the homely sausage. There is a tinge of sadness in his lament for “unked” (uncouth), which he mentions, is not in Johnson, and goes on to say: “It is at present, however, only heard in the mouths of the vulgar, from which state few words ever return to good usage.” After all this, it is a trifle disconcerting to read Mme. D’Arblay’s opinion of John Walker himself. She writes in her diary concerning him: “Though modest in science he was vulgar in conversation.” Alas! Poor John!